Great X-pectations
by It'sMyScreenName
Summary: A Pokemon X Nuzlocke. Being a Pokemon trainer was supposed to be easy; Fiera never dared herself to think otherwise. At first, it seemed so fun. Everyone else was so reassuring. Her friends were always supposed to be there for her, or that's what they promised. But if she doesn't change her methods eventually, it may not take long for her to fall. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Oh, look. It's my first fan fiction.**

 **I think i'm supposed to put a disclaimer here, so I don't own Pokemon, or Pokemon X. Basically I'm just asking to not be sued.**

 **Chapter One.**

 _ **Welcome to the World of Pokemon!**_

" _Dammit Fletchling!"_

I awoke to a sudden pain in my chest and a Fletchling sitting innocently beside my bed.

There I was, sleeping the best I had in ages, when Fetching decided to wake me up by ramming straight into my chest. Clearly, I didn't want to wake up, but it seemed I didn't have much of a choice. I rolled out of bed (literally) and let myself fall to the floor with a satisfying _thud_.

"Morning, Fiera!" My mom called from downstairs. She didn't seem too worried about me possibly breaking my face, or something like that. My family is a great one.

"Morning, mother." I groaned, too soft for her to possibly hear me. I took a look at Fletchling. I don't know how a bird even manages to smirk, but it did. I rolled my eyes and pushed myself off of the floor. Right now, my hair looked like someone had glues a blonde bush to my head. Even so, I didn't bother to go to the mirror and fix it. _I hate mirrors_.

Ok, starting from the beginning. My name is Fiera Kanani. Ask my friends, I'm bad with introductions. I had just moved to the Kalos region when- ah, forget it. You probably already know what happened. After all, I'm sort of famous now. **Moving on…**

After forcing myself to _not_ kick Fletchling across the room, I forced myself down my new staircase into the kitchen. I was still in my amazing pajamas, and I will never regret that.

"You sure slept well!" My mother laughed, mockingly. I hadn't slept at all, and she knew it. "All rested up from the move?"

I was about to interrupt her, say no, and just waltz back upstairs, but next thing I knew, she was yelling.

"Fiera! You look like you just rolled out of bed!" _Oh yes, I just rolled out of my bed. However could my mother come to such a wild conclusion? I was responsible enough to climb out of bed, not roll. Urgh, can you tell I'm being sarcastic?_ _Why couldn't I just spend all day in my pajamas? We just moved in yesterday. It's not like I'm going anywh- oh…_ _never mind._

I've never been new to the whole moving thing. I was born in Alola, but moved to Kanto when I was three. Five years later, my mom and I moved to Sinnoh. Three years after that, we moved back to Alola. Now i'm 14 and living in the Kalos region. My mom _loved_ travelling. We'd done it so much that I'd lost all hope of a proper education, and I'm now fluent in some languages that I will never use again, like Japanese Sign Language. I never even knew any deaf people.

The point is, every time we move my mom makes me walk around town and introduce myself to the neighbors that I would never talk to again.

I forced myself up the stairs and practically crawled over to the mirror, still trying not to look at it. I rummaged through my drawers and threw on the first clothes I saw. High waited skirt, black sleeveless shirt, and a light pink hat. I looked much better than I had planned, but I guess Kalos just has a way of making you instantly stylish.

I took one last look at my room and headed back downstairs. The outdated PC. The Wii U that I had, even though I didn't have any games. My far too pink bed. I swear, I spent twenty minutes staring at the place, except for the mirror. I don't know why, but something told me I wouldn't be seeing it for a while.

My mother was more than excited to see me ready to go. "It's about time you got going!" She smiled "Why don't you step out and say hello to the neighbors?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I haven't even had breakfast yet." That was just my way of saying ' _What? Don't make me actually_ talk _to people!'_

"Oh, of course." My mom ran over to the fridge and yanked out some fancy french bread. She simply threw it at me and pointed to the door. "I'm not going to let my daughter become some antisocial rock dweller… Again."

I rolled my eyes. "You know, mother, you're beginning to sound as if you don't love me."

She glared at me.

"Fine." I groaned, viciously ripping into the bread with my teeth. I have to admit, it tasted pretty damn good.

The second I opened my front door some girl practically fell into my house, but my mother didn't seem too worried. She had long brown hair tied into pigtails and a pink shirt with far too many bows on it. She looked up at me and just stared into my eyes for a moment. Eventually, she blushed and ran back to a boy standing next to the tree I'm my front yard. "I- I was just about to knock. I'm. I'm, uhh. We're your, uhhhh-"

The boy chucked and proceeded to finish whatever she was trying to say. "The name's Calem. I live next door." He reached his hand out to me, presumably for a handshake. He had about medium length black hair, and he was wearing some odd blue jacket. Trying not to stare for too long, I reached out to return the handshake. Or, I was about to until…

"And I'm Shauna! Nice to meet you!" The girl interrupted. "Guess what! We've come to get you!" Shauna did her best to not elaborate on that statement, even with me using the confused glare I seemed to inherit from my mother.

Calem rolled his eyes at his apparent friend. "The renowned Professor Sycamore lives here in the Kalos region." He stuck his hands in his pockets and stood up taller than before. "I heard he has a task for five kids including us." He took his right hand out of his pocket and waved it dismissively. "But I'm surprised he knows who you are. You _did_ just move to Vaniville, after all."

"Yeah, yesterday." I rubbed my chest where Fletchling had rammed into me. I looked back over to the hysterical Shauna, attempting to make conversation with the vessel of perpetual euphoria. "So, what were we doing?"

"Don't know!" Shauna remarked, gleefully. "We'll wait for you in the next town over! And you know what?!" She paused for dramatic effect. "We're going to get…" Another stupid pause. "a Pokemon!"

Wait what? I literally just moved here I don't need a new pet all of a sudden. Unless she meant…

Oh.

 _OoOoOoOh._

 _Oh no._

I was so caught up in my thoughts I could barely hear Shauna yelling at me to hurry up. Though, I could here Calem's miserable laughing. Just like that, the two ran away, expecting me to follow them. They don't even know my name yet, or at least I didn't tell them.

I was honestly about to walk inside and tell my mom about the idiots I'll be forced to call friends, until we moved again. I don't know why I didn't. I did _not_ want to actually walk to the next town, no matter how close it was, and there was no way I'd be forced to take care of a Pokemon. Fletchling was enough for me. Just think, six different Pokemon waking me up every morning. Every. Single. Day.

I forced myself through Vaniville gate. Surprisingly enough there was a beautiful pathway bordered with trees and flowers. Sunlight shone through the tall oaks, and refracted off the individual leaves floating to the ground. Ok, so I didn't want to go home anymore, but if anything this was my home now. Suddenly, I was filled with a surge of adventure. There had to be more places like this, right? With my head suddenly rocketing up to the clouds I ran straight into Aquacorde Town.

In town there were apartments and shops all around me. Chairs and tables surrounded a ledge overlooking the rest of very air tasted of pastries and freshly aged wood, like a violin or a new car. In the center of the square was a large fountain big enough for me to swim laps in. Even more shops surrounded the fountain, each with their own glass displays outside of them and in the windows. Rays of morning light broke through the prism-like windows, creating an array of rainbow decor painted onto the ground. There were so many shops, in fact, I made a mental note to visit them later. I swear I was about to loot one of them until someone called my name.

" _Hey, Fiera! This way! Over here!"_

Wait a second, how the hell did they know my name? I never told them.

I looked over my shoulder to see Shauna, Calem, and two other kids sitting around a large table, or rather two tables pushed together. There were two open chairs, one of which was probably for me. I couldn't help but wonder what the other chair was their for. It was obvious that the others had to bring chairs over from other tables, so why bring an extra? Probably just to make it look all nice and symmetrical.

"We were just talking about you!" Shauna grinned. "C'mon, have a seat!"

Oh yeah, _**How the hell did she know my name?!**_

I reluctantly took the seat next to Calem. He seemed calm and enjoyable, unlike the other one. Out of the corner if my eye, I saw Shauna scowl as I took my seat. Odd, she didn't seem like the type to do that.

"This is the meeting place, Fiera." Calem smiled at me. I had forgotten what butterflies had felt like, but that wasn't important. I had just met this guy. He patted my shoulder and kept talking. "I'll introduce you. Everyone, this is Fiera."

Speaking of which…

"Wow…" One of the others interrupted my thoughts. How rude. I didn't know him, but the best way to describe him was fat and dorky. He had this stupid hairstyle that had cornrows on either side of his oval of a face, and two puffs of hair that looked like scoops of ice cream. Made sense, as his shirt had a Vanillite on it. "Shauna's description was spot on!"

"So, Fiera. This is Tierno. He can really tear up the dance floor…" Even Calem sounded unsure of himself. After all, with how chubby this kid was, there was no way he could actually dance. Calem saw the skeptical look on my face and decided it was best to move on. "And this is Trevor." He gestured toward a small boy with orange hair the size of his head. "He's a little shy, but he always gets perfect scores on his tests…" See, that one was more believable.

"All right! Nice to meetcha!" Tierno exclaimed. "You know, it'd feel like we're closer a crew if we call each other by nicknames." There was no way in the Distortion World that I'd let this guy call me by a nickname. "Can I call you lady F?" _Ew. No. Never._

"What? No way!" Shauna yelled, reflecting my thoughts exactly. "She's a Li'l F, for sure!"

 _Never mind._

"What do you think Trevor?" Shauna was clearly just trying to be nice because she obviously wanted to use her nickname.

Trevor jumped back in his seat. "What?! You want me to nickname someone I just met?! Shauna, you shouldn't put people on the spot like this." _Ok, I like this kid._ "Well...how about something low key? Maybe...something like F-kins?"

I sighed. "I had such high hopes in you, Trevor." He slumped down at my comment, muttering something under his breath. Seriously though, F-kins? What was this kid thinking? I'm a person, not your pet. That's even a horrible name for a pet. Just imagine, your parents are yelling at you. Then, suddenly, the Meowth walks in and they accidently say it's name. Who would take them seriously after that?

 _Actually, that may not be so bad._

Calem gave a large exhale then looked over at me. "You should decide what we call you."

I smiled a bit just looking at him. "Fiera's just fine."

"OK!" Shauna threw her arms in the air. "Fiera fits you perfectly! I'm sure we're gonna be great friends, so I'll call you that, too!"

"Well, duh." I waved her off. "It's kinda my name."

The table broke into laughter (even though it wasn't _really_ funny). Calem pat my head and smiled at me. _Yeah, I like this guy._ We shared eye contact for a few seconds until Shauna broke in with her hopeless optimism. "Hey!" She pouted. "Can we see the Pokemon now? I want to meet my partner soon!" _Oooh, right… We were getting Pokemon, weren't we?_

"I know, right?" Tierno sang, unable to detect Shauna's sneaky change of subject. "It was such a cool feeling when Trevs and I met our Pokemon! Hope you feel the same way we did!" Suddenly, Tierno plopped three red and white capsules on the table as well as three Pokemon. There was some strange grass thing on two legs, or something, an adorable fire fox, and a blue frog. I take it I was supposed to pick one. I stared at the fox, Arceus, was it cute. I instinctively picked it up and lifted it into the air. It's red eyes shone in the sun, reflecting my eyes into theirs. I know I already had Fletchling, but **this** , I wanted it. So. Much.

"Ah, Fennekin." Calem gave me this look like, _ah of course the blonde girl goes for the fox,_ but apparently it was called Fennekin. "What will you name him?"

Well, apparently it was a he, so…

"Azar." I held Azar close to my chest. "It means fire."

"Really?" Calem looked impressed. "What language?"

I chucked a bit. "Yeah, about that... I kinda forgot."

"Oh." He looked disappointed in me, but Calem still smiled.

"OK! My partner is Chespin!" Shauna interrupted again. Why did she keep doing this? "Wow! We go together great! The two of us are just way-ay-ay too cute!"

Calem picked up the frog. "Good to meet you Froakie. My name's Calem. Because of you, I can be a real Pokemon trainer. Thanks!" He grinned at the sight of his new friend, I just couldn't stop staring at him. Does that make me weird? Should I care? Yes and no.

"Uh, pardon me, but I have something for you from the professor as well." Trevor was the one to interrupt this time; at least he was being polite. "I have something that will help you understand Pokemon on a much deeper level." He handed me a red device, a Pokedex apparently. "Um, you see…" he looked up at me in excitement. "The Pokedex I just gave you is a high-tech device that automatically records the Pokemon you encounter! The reason you get one is because the professor wants us to go on a journey with our Pokemon and complete the Pokedex. To put it another way, it's an important mission from the professor. I'm sure of it."

"Oh lighten up Trevs!" Tierno laughed. "You're way too serious sometimes." Tierno shifted his focus to me. "Um, Fiera…Please take this with you, too. It's a letter from the professor. He said you should give it to your mom." He handed me an envelope that read "To Grace. From Sycamore." Ok, forget my name, how the hell did he know my mom's name?!

"All right! We're done with our errand for the professor. I guess Trevs and I will go look for Pokemon! Let's go, Trevs!" With that Tierno and Trevor just got up and walked away.

A silence fell upon us, the remaining three, as I was still staring down at the letter in my hand. What was I about to do? Azar looked up at me and cocked his head as if he were a dog. Seeing my uncertainty, Calem rested his hand on my shoulder and tried to clarify what just happened. "In Kalos, kids are chosen to carry a Pokedex and go on an adventure, but you need to give that letter to your mom before you do any of that. I'm sure it'll be fun. Trust me. Is there anything else you want to know?"

Oh yeah. "How did you know my name."

Calem threw his head back in laughter. "Like I said, I'm surprised Sycamore knows who you are. _He_ told us your name."

"Right…"

"Oh relax, it's probably just because your mom is a famous Rhyhorn racer and all. Grace, right?"

"Yeah," I relaxed. "I guess she is." I picked up Azar and shoved his pokeball in my bag. "Guess, I'll be on my way then."

Calem nodded and waved at me. "Nice seeing you, neighbor."

With Azar on my shoulder I began to walk away, back home. A journey, huh? Honestly, I had no idea why I would be doing this, or even if i should. Azar clearly seemed fond of the idea, but my mother wouldn't be too keen. I suppose that was what the letter was for. Hopefully this Sycamore guy could be persuasive. I guess that I j-

" _Fiera, wait!"_

Shauna ran up behind me. I turned around to see her right in front of me, and Calem, who was just beginning to walk away, as he stopped dead in his tracks. "You're gonna be my opponent in my Pokemon-battling debut!"

"Beg your pardon?" I looked back at her. I was kinda in the middle of something.

"Oh, c'mon Fiera." Calem smirked. "I'm sure you'll do fine. Besides, I would probably beat you if we battled, so Shauna's a great opponent."

Shauna frowned at Calem's joke, but when she looked back to see me reluctantly nodding my head, she happily started dancing. "OK, Li'l Chespin! It's our first battle! Let's win it with style"

Azar jumped off my shoulder, Shauna sent out her Chespin, and the battle began, sort of. I was ready to battle, probably. Well, I was until I started to panic as I tried to find out what moves Azar even had. How did I battle? I hadn't done this before. What? Why? How? What? How?

"Press the blue button on your Pokedex!" Calem directed.

"What button?! I don't see any buttons! It's just a rectangle!" I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, so I just sat there fumbling around with the Pokedex until I managed to get a strange screen to show up. Shauna just stared at me impatiently as I dropped the Pokedex on the ground, picked it back up, and pressed some random buttons. Thankfully, it didn't take long for me to come across a screen showcasing the moves of my Pokemon. "

Finally!" I cheered. "Now, uhh, Azar? Use… oh shit." If what I remembered about disadvantages was true, then I should be able to… "Ember!" Azar spat out some flame that hit Chespin straight in the head. Chespin stumbled backwards, but got back on it's two feet surprisingly fast.

"Tackle!" Shauna retaliated. Chespin began charging at Azar sending him tumbling backwards. Azar was quick to get to his feet, all four of them.

Once Azar stood back up I called out once again. "Azar, Ember!" Again, Azar spat out a flame, and again it hit Chespin straight in the head, but this time Chespin didn't get up.

"No fair I wasn't done watching my Li'l Chespin yet!" Shauna ran to her partner, glumly cradling him in her arms. "So you win then." She looked over at me, suddenly shifting her tone of voice. "You're amazing, Fiera!"

I picked up Azar, who proudly puffed out his chest. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Well, say hi to your mom for me!" Shauna ran away, not bothering to say anything more.

Calem laughed. "Shauna's just a bit… étrange." That's something I forgot about Calem. He has this tendency to randomly slip into French. Google Translate is always there if you need it. "Really though." Calem continued. "You could turn into a truly amazing trainer with some more practice. I really hope to see you again." He then gave the warmest smile I'd ever see from this guy. Calem spun around and walked away with a wave back in my direction.

Maybe they were right. Maybe I could be a great trainer, Azar seemed to agree.

That was it, I made my decision, so I ran home with Azar clutching my hat, bursting through my door before I had time to change my mind.

* * *

 **Oh, you actually read it?**

 **Anyway, like i said before, this is my first fan fiction. I do my best to proofread, but if I missed anything feel free to tell me.**

 **I don't think i'm that great at writing battles. I try.**

 **Honestly, I've already written the first twenty chapters, but have done exactly no editing. I can probably update pretty regularly on weekends, hopefully.**

 **Review, please. I'm desperate for feedback.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's an idea: Why don't I update the same story twice in one day?!**

 **If it's any consolation, this is the single worst chapter in the entire story. Like I said before, I've already finished the first twenty chapters.**

 **I need a life.**

 **Chapter Two**

 _ **An Uncertain Adventure**_

"So! What did you and the neighbor kids end up doing?" My mom sounded so kind, unusual for her. Maybe it was just the moment. It had never occurred to me what leaving on a journey actually meant. Part of me wanted her to reject the idea and say I couldn't leave, but the idea of a journey sounded kinda fun.

I reached into my bag to pull out the letter. I mean, how could I make myself tell my mother, of all people, I was leaving her? Maybe I wasn't supposed to leave. Maybe my uncertainty is just me being a typical teenager. Yeah, that was probably it.

"Wait one second, Fiera! Is that a Pokeball you have there?" She stared at my hands and the Pokeball clasped between them. I couldn't tell whether her look was one of excitement or anger. So I just stood still, prepared to rip the letter out of my bag. Was she about to say no to everything?

"You got your very own Pokemon? Lucky you! How about that? You're a Pokemon Trainer now, too! Congratulations!" Admittedly, this caught me off guard. I had prepared a whole speech on my way home just in case she said no, and now she's happy for me? To be fair,I hadn't exactly told her I was leaving on a journey yet, so I yanked the letter out of my bag and shoved it to my mother.

"Huh? A letter for me?" She flipped it around in her hands. "It says it's from somebody named Sycamore. What could it be? A love letter?" She glanced at me and smiled.

 _Yes mother, Dad left us, you don't need to remind me._

Mom couldn't possibly have opened that letter any slower. "Wow, what lovely handwriting…" She wasn't even reading it yet. She was merely previewing the most important letter she'd ever read, but perhaps calling it the "most important letter" is just a bit egotistical of me...

 _Just hurry up and read the damn thing!_

"Hmm? What do we have here? A request…" That's when it hit me. Mom was just finding out. I couldn't look at her anymore. I'd be on my own, I may never even see my mom again. I couldn't. I didn't want to leave. My eyes fell upon the floor. She'd be alone, and so would I. Suddenly, my legs felt like they couldn't support me anymore. I could no longer lift my arm to wipe the tears from my eyes, so I just stood there and watch them fall to the floor. I knew my emotions were a bit excessive, but I didn't really care. Azar was still gripping my hat to prevent falling to the floor. I had completely forgotten he was still there.

"Oh, I see."

 _There it was._

Azar jumped down to the floor. "Fenn?" He cocked his head, darting his eyes between me and my mother. I wanted to hug him with all my heart, but I couldn't bring myself to move. Me? Alone in Kalos? How stupid was I? Very.

"Fiera." she laughed a bit. "We've barely unpacked, and-" My mom turned to me, only to find me kneeling in the floor, crying. Her motherly instincts seemed to take over, if she had any. "Oh, sweetheart. It's fine." Her tone seemed more mocking than caring. Looking back on this moment, I should've just left without another word."Let's get you and Fennekin ready for your journey. It's okay."

I fell on top of my mother, practically squeezing the life out of her with my hug. "I don't. I don't want to leave!"

She sighed. "You should." My mom rolled her eyes and stood up. "C'mon, Fiera. This is an opportunity I would have killed for when I was your age. I'm going to go upstairs and get your stuff ready, and I hope you'll have your mind made up when I get back."

I nodded, but she didn't seem to need my approval.

"Ok, I'll be back." She left upstairs to my room. I could even hear the floor creaking as she walked. Each individual step she took pained me. What was I about to do? I couldn't just leave. Could I? No. I couldn't stay alone for a day right now, let alone what could end up being years.

Azar curled up on my lap. He was so warm, and his fur looked so soft, so sweet. He nudged his nose under my hand, trying to be pet. As I scratched his head I discovered that his fur was even softer than I thought, like a blanket of fire, only it's pleasant to the touch. Behind his eyes was a brilliant light I'd never seen before in any living thing. It honestly seemed as if he was filled with flames. He was just so warm, and so beautiful.

I heard chirping behind me, and next thing I knew, Fletchling was on my shoulder.

That's right, I wouldn't be alone, my Pokemon would be with me. So would Calem, Shauna and the other two. My friends and partners are here to support me every step of the way, nothing could change that.

 _Nothing._

The creaking of the floors came closer, and my mom appeared beside me. "Here you are, Fiera." she handed me a small pink bag. "I even packed a change of clothes. That is, if you are going. Are you?" She stared at me, and straight into my soul. Leaving wouldn't be such a bad thing. Supposedly.

Right. I jumped up with Azar cradled in my arms. "I sure am."

She clasped her hands together. "My, what an unexpected turn of events! It's just like a sudden last burst of speed from a racer in a Rhyhorn race! You made friends! You met your Pokemon! And now you get to take a lap around Kalos!"

I grinned, surprised by her sudden, more upbeat, mood. She was right, this wasn't just some errand for a professor, this was an adventure. _My_ adventure. Right then, I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of the day alone with Azar. Out on our own, free from expectations.

"Oh, and don't forget this." My mom handed me a map of the region. "So you don't get lost or anything. I don't know what this Professor Sycamore wants you to see on your trip… but taking a journey with your Pokemon is a really wonderful experience. Good luck." She wrapped her arms around me. "You'll be fine..." She glared at me. "Now leave."

"Mom," I smiled, breaking away from her embrace. "Thank you. For everything."

With that I darted out the door, swearing I'd do what my mom always told me to.

 _Go for broke…_

 _But don't break the china..._

 _It's expensive._

* * *

 **Oh well... I tried.**

 **Honestly, what happened here was just me rushing through writing this so I could just start playing the game. Now its so bad, in my eyes, that I have no idea how to fix it.**

 **Excuse me while I fish for compliments... or insults, I don't really care as long as I get some feedback.**


	3. Chapter 3

**HEY YOU! YES, YOU! THE PERSON FLIPPING THROUGH THIS STORY WITHOUT READING IT! STOP!**

 **No seriously, you should read it. Unless you're looking for a decent story, then you can stop.**

 **I don't own Pokemon. Blah Blah Blah. You get the gist.**

 **Chapter Three**

 ** _Pepper Spray_**

I'm pretty sure I came prepared for my journey, I think. I spent all of my allowance money (like twenty bucks) on a supply run for Pokeballs and Potions. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Ok, so then I'm on route two, the place right before Santalune Forest. I took literally two steps before I ran into a Pidgey. The thought of another Pokemon excited me beyond belief, and I honestly don't remember much of how I caught it. It was just, scratch, scratch, Pokeball, and **Boom** , caught. Though, I do still remember the Pokedex description of it.

" _A common sight in forests and woods. It flaps it's wings at ground level to kick up blinding sand."_

Great, so I just caught the bird equivalent of pepper spray. Wait, that gave me an idea. I looked at the ball encapsulating my new birdie friend. "So, how about we name her Pepper, Azar?"

"Kin! Kin!" He seemed to like the idea.

"Right," I nodded, placing Pepper's ball in my purse. "Pepper it is then!" Azar climbed back up to my shoulder. I laughed, scratching his chin. "Well it was between naming her 'Pepper' and 'The Word.'"

Azar looked confused.

"You know, because bird is the word…" Seeing the look on Azar's face, I stopped. "Yeah you're right it's stupid. _Whatever_ " Azar began shaking on my shoulder, laughing hysterically. In response, I glared at the fox while trying not to knock him off my shoulder. "Hey. Don't laugh at me. I'm the only thing keeping you alive right now."

Azar rolled his tiny red eyes. I couldn't help but notice how adorable he was. I get it, I've said this before, but the novelty of the situation was enough to warrant another mention. I mean, think about it, I'm traveling around the world, at the age of 14. How amazing is that? I suppose I should insert some cheesy quote about traveling, but even a Master Ball couldn't capture the way I felt.

Oh, and my tiny little breakdown earlier meant nothing to me now. Like I said, I'm a teenager; it's normal to me. Even so, if anyone dares suggest that I may be Bipolar, well…

 ** _I'll tear out your fucking windpipe._**

Now that that's said… Route Two is actually quite short. There were about three patches of grass, and I was only two strides into one of them before I encountered Pepper. I'm one of those people who walk way too slowly. There may be a problem when it takes you twenty minutes just two make it through a single patch of grass.

I'm going off topic again.

I actually am going somewhere with this because in the second patch of grass were Calem and Shauna.

"Oh! Hi Fiera!" Shauna greeted me, frantically waving her arm. "Come learn how to catch Pokemon with me!" She didn't stop waving, even as I walked up beside her.

"About that…" I started, looking at Pepper's Pokeball. Azar seemed to chuckle beside me.

"Calem's mom and dad are amazing trainers! That's why he knows so much about catching Pokemon and battling." Shauna was still waving.

"Shauna, I already caught-"

"You can talk about my parents If you want, but it doesn't have anything to do with me." Calem interrupted, clearly playing along with Shauna's stupidity. He smirked at me then continued with his hand on his hip. "I'm going to show you how to catch one now, so watch carefully!"

Sure enough, Calem ran into the grass before he came across a Bu- you know what? Never mind. it's like he was _trying_ to bore me. Well, he caught the thing by throwing a ball at it. Basic Shit.

As an aside, can some explain to me how Pokeballs work? I _think_ it converts the Pokemon into data, or something like that, but how? It seems way too sophisticated to give to teenagers, yet here I am with a fire breathing fox on my shoulder. Life is weird.

"Wow!" Shauna seemed way too surprised. "The Pokemon went INSIDE the Pokeball?!"

Just looking at Calem's face you could tell he had internally face palmed. " Seriously, Shauna? Did you forget already? Your Chespin is in a Pokeball, right?" He groaned at Shauna who was now scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. "Anyway, I'll share some Pokeballs with you two." Calem handed me a few Pokeballs, rendering my supply run useless. Besides Pepper's Pokeball, of course.

"Pokeballs!" Shauna squealed. "Do you think I can catch Pokemon with them, too?"

Calem rolled his eyes. "Yes, Shauna, that's the point." he glanced at me and laughed. Clearly, Calem gets along quite well with this chick.

"OK! If I find a cute Pokemon, I'll throw lots of Pokeballs at it, and then we'll become friends!"

"Yeah, right." Calem seemed eager to get away from Shauna. "Be seeing you." And he ran off without another word.

 _He seems nice._

I looked over at Azar on my shoulder. "Whaddaya say? I think you need something for just enduring all of that." Eagerly, Azar nodded as I pulled a potion out off my bag. Thank Arceus for supply runs. "I think Pepper should get one too." I released Pepper, who gulped down the potion alongside Azar. I shipped them so much right now.

So I continued down the route with Azar and Pepper by my side, until we came across a boy wearing shorts and a blue hoodie. There was a distinct fire in his eyes, the same thing I saw in Shauna when she challenged me; I could tell he wanted to battle. "You two ready for our first real battle?" Azar glared at me when I said this. "Oh, yeah. Shauna doesn't count. Shauna never counts."

"Hey!" The shorts kid called out to me. "When two Trainers' eyes meet, a Pokemon battle must begin." There were a few things wrong in his statement. Mainly, Calem's and my eyes met all the time, and we never battled.

 _heh._

No matter. I called Azar over to me so we could start the battle. The youngster sent out a Zigzagoon, level five. Or that's what the Pokedex called it, at least.

"Azar, Ember."

"Growl!"

"Ember, again!"

"Growl!"

"Uh, Ember, or whatever."

Sure I ended up winning, but he was so predictable it felt like I was fighting a computer. Who the hell just spams growl and expects to win? This kid, apparently.

After that was finally over I managed to find my way into Santalune Forest, and the second I did…

"Wait up!" Shauna yelled. "Let's walk together! I feel like something exciting will happen if I stay by you!" Shauna clasped her hands together and almost began to beg.

I shrugged. "Sure, why not?" I managed to surprise even myself with this action. I thought I wanted to be alone. While Shauna was rather annoying, I must admit, I enjoyed the company, so I agreed. Probably. Even I don't understand my thought patterns.

But Shauna was right, I did run into a wild Pansear, yet Azar was too strong and "accidentally" killed it. I take it he didn't want any fire-type competition. If that's what Shauna considered exciting, we may have a small problem.

"Oh, Fiera!" Shauna smiled. "Do you want me to heal Azar for you?" Shauna had somehow managed to get an arms full of potions and elixirs and was now cradling them like her children.

I took one look at my supplies and agreed. I did not want to waste my potions, so I'll just have Shauna waste her's. Seems like a fair trade off.

Shauna spent a few minutes fumbling around with her potions, trying to figure out which one would be the best to use on Azar. Meanwhile, I was spinning in circles, basking in the surroundings. Santalune Forest reminded me of this place I had been to when I lived in Kanto, Viridian Forest. I remembered being scared to death of that place; I'd try to avoid it as much as possible. After around a year, my friends and I did our best to explore the forest and defeat the monsters living inside it. We even made up a whole legend about a mischievous mouse who roamed the forest, searching for victims to strike with electricity. We spent hours in the place whenever possible, looking for the creature. A year later, we had a tree house and a wild Pikachu friend who'd come to the tree house everyday around noon, waiting for us to feed him. I'd never forget the look on my friends face when we met Pikachu. They thought they were going to die. Only me and one other had the guts to try and make friends with him. We offered it a "sacrifice" of our lunches. That day we had each made a lifelong friend, or everyone else did.

It should be evident by now how much I hate moving. My mother always said it was an opportunity to meet new people and make new friends, but I was never that good a making friends. Of course, maybe she could be right. Maybe I could make new memories, just like the ones in Viridian Forest.

"Fiera?" Shauna held up Azar in her hands and gently handed him over to me. "Whatcha thinkin about?"

I shrugged. With my eyes closed, I lifted up my head and smiled at the sky. "It's nothing." I pet Azar with him held up to my chest as his small flame of a body warmed my heart directly.

Shauna grinned. "I bet we're going to make so many new memories on this journey!" She scratched her head. "Honestly, that's the only reason I agreed to travel. My life was so boring. I just wanted something new, you know?"

"Guess I've been there…" I took a deep breath. "But if anything I just wanted something that I could get attached to, without worrying about when I'd move next." I never thought of myself as one to open up easily. I guess Shauna just has that effect on people. Suddenly, she didn't seem nearly as annoying.

"Do you move often?" Shauna gently walked deeper into the forest, gesturing for me to follow.

"Well…" I shrugged as I walked beside her. "More than I could recommend."

"Oh…" Shauna stopped talking and spun around to face me directly. "Well you don't need to worry about that anymore! The others and I will always be there for you!" Shauna's reassuring words actually worked surprisingly well. I can't begin to explain what this meant to me. This journey would be the one thing that I could always count on. This journey was a great idea.

I did my best to hide my smile; something about it seemed so foreign to me. "Thank you."

I figured the forest should be a good place to train for a bit. There were bugs everywhere, and even some scattered items. And with Shauna here I wouldn't need to use any potions. I'll spare you the details, but by the time I found anyone else, I had already leveled up both Pepper and Azar a few times each.

Of course, I did eventually come across Calem who boasted something about being able to make it through the forest in his sleep, and judging by his voice, he probably was sleeping right then.

Trevor was staring at some Pokemon he found In the grass. He didn't fight it, just stared.

Tierno found himself in a Trainer Battle that no one seemed to be winning.

Shauna, of course, was still behind me.

Somewhere deep in the forest Shauna stopped me dead in my tracks. "Oh! Hang on one second, Fiera!"

"Wait, why?" I turned to see Shauna running into the grass patch next to me. I then saw her kneel down and pick something out of the grass.

"Look what I found, Fiera!" She squealed.

I walked over and saw what seemed like a yellow spray bottle filled with medicine. "How'd you see that from so far? It's only a few inches tall." I know I'm usually an unbearably sarcastic little shit, but I was genuinely impressed.

"Yeah," Flattered, Shauna scratched the back of her head. "I love puzzles, so I watch everything much closer than you'd think!"

"Really?" I questioned. Shauna didn't seem like the intellectual type, but then again, I just met her today. Well, The More You Know.

"Yep!" She blushed. "Oh, here. I'll give it to you!"

She handed me the bottle. I shook it softly in my hands and watched the fluid swish around inside. "Sorry, but what is it?"

"Oh! It's a Paralyze Heal. You know, just in case your Pokemon get paralyzed in battle." Shauna looked around her. "Like… There! There's a youngster up there who wants to battle!"

North of me and Shauna was another young boy with shorts and a blue hoodie. "I take it that's a popular outfit…" I glared at the boy who was now impatiently tapping his foot and looking straight at me.

"Pretty much." Shauna giggled. "You might want to hurry up there."

The second Shauna said that Azar jumped off of my shoulder and ran straight over the the youngster. I turned to Shauna. "Look at what you've done." I laughed, or rather, _we_ did.

" _Come on, Scatterbug-let's powder this punk!"_

The youngster seemed ready for battle. "Come on, then." He groaned at me. Children these days, so impatient. "If you don't hurry up I'll just battle your fox without you!"

I shrugged and ran off to the impending battle. It didn't take long for my non-existent asthma to kick in. By the time I reached Azar and the youngster, I was panting with my hands on my knees. "Try not to do that again, Azar." I sighed. Three seconds of running and I was already out of breath. This was going to be a long journey, but it was better that way.

The youngster groaned. "Ready or what?"

"Uh, yeah. Azar?" I nodded towards Scatterbug. "Ember." Naturally, I was disappointed Ember was Azar's only decent move right now. Yet, it got the job done, as Scatterbug fainted in one hit. A bit underwhelming, I might add.

The youngster scowled. "Fletchling, beat the shit out of that damn fox!"

 ** _Wow_** , did this kid just say that? He looked ten at the most. His parents must be horrible. Then again, he _was_ out in the middle of a forest fighting with tiny animals. Arceus, battles sounded horrible like that.

No matter, I was in a battle right now, and I had to win. Yeah, I just kept using Ember until I won.

It never failed me before.

A few battles later and Pepper learned Pepper spray Sand Attack. _That was brilliant._ Now my bird could blind me. Calem seemed happy about me having such a "dangerous" Pokemon on me. He even gave me Some more Pokeballs when he saw I only had two Pokemon. See? He's kind, just like Shauna.

I eventually came across a lass with a legendary Pikachu. Pepper just ended up blinding it so Azar could burn it to death. Fun, right?

When finally found our way to the exit I was greeted by Calem, Tierno, and Trevor behind me. I simply stood staring at the absence of trees ahead of us. The light from it barely managed to his my feet, but I could still feel it's warmth.

"So you got here first." Calem flicked a bit of his hair. "Seems like I'm neighbors with someone who has a lot of potential." He smiled at me.

"The way Pokemon move-it's just incredible! I want to show off some of that spirit when I dance!" Tierno danced in front of me. Apparently he could dance quite well. Actually, the guy can friken break dance.

"Tierno…" Trevor sighed. "Could you think about something besides how Pokemon move for once?"

Calem crossed his arms. "Oh come on you know Tierno. He never stops."

"Never?" I laughed. "Dancing at the end of the world, then?"

"Yep!" Tierno responded, doing a flip. "That's me!"

 _Good times._

"We're all here!" Shauna ran up in front of me. "Let's go to Santalune City! I'm sick of the dark!"

Of course, we were all eager to get back in the sun. Side by side, we all made our way into the clearing. Something about this moment stood out to me. I hadn't even been in Kalos for a full 24 hours, but I already had friends by my side. Here we were, walking into the sun's warmth, together.

I honestly expected Santalune City to be right after the forest, but no. There was a whole 'nother route. Well, at least I could catch another Pokemon.

"What are you all going to do, now?" Shauna asked us all.

"Why, go look for Pokemon, of course!" Trevor stuck his hand to his chest. "The professor did ask us to complete the Pokedex, after all. And furthermore, different Pokemon prefer living in different places."

Tierno continued the thought with his hand on his chin. "I'll bet different Pokemon will use different moves."

Calem had this look on his face like, _well duh._ I could tell he thought everyone else was just stupid for pointing those things out.

"What are you gonna do, Calem?" Shauna saw his face and tried to stop him from saying anything stupid.

"I'll fight the gym leader. Test my strength and whatnot."

"See, Fiera?!" Shauna praised. "Calem knows allot!"

"Speaking of which…" Calem handed everyone a book titled "Adventure Rules". "Try not to kill yourself or anything. This may help you with that"

"Oh, we'll be fine!" Shauna ran off pulling Tierno and Trevor by the collar.

Calem yelled out after them. "Agaçant!" He sighed. Clearly none of them knew French. "Oh Helix…They sure are something."

I laughed sarcastically. "You must be _great_ friends."

"Yeah. I'll be honest here, the only reason I wanted you to come on this journey was so I wouldn't be stuck with them alone."

"Aww, but you seemed so nice."

"I guess, I did 'teach' you how to catch a Pokemon."

I reached for Pepper's Pokeball. "Yeah, about that. Were you actually being helpful, or just showing off?"

"Why can't I do both?"

"Is that why you're taking on the gyms?" Honestly, I had no idea what a gym was, but I also had no idea how to ask Calem.

"Well, what else would I do?"

I rocked back and forth on my heels. "Well, you could start by telling me what a gym is."

Calem broke into laughter. "I keep forgetting you aren't from here. Gyms are basically places trainers go to test their strength. Each gym has a leader, and if you beat them they give you a badge. Once you collect eight badges you can challenge the Elite Four and eventually the Kalos Champion."

I cocked my head in confusion. What was that?

"Just focus on the gyms right now." Calem looked just about as confused as me. "Where you from anyway? Most regions have gyms, I'm surprised you've never heard of them."

"Alola."

"Oh, that explains allot actually." He scratched his head. "Well I should get going. There's a Pokemon School in Santalune if you need anything else." Calem patted me on the back and began to walk away. He waved my direction. "Try not to kill yourself!"

 _Off to Santalune it was then._

* * *

 **So, did ya like it? If not, tell me. If you did, tell me. I don't care what you tell me, as long as you tell me.**

 **Oh yeah, this is my third update in the same day. Heh. Heh heh.**

 **There was something I said before about needing a life. Yeah, that.**

 **Well have a nice day 'cause I swear to god I'm not going to write anymore today. Unless you review. Please.**


	4. Chapter 4

**OH! How are you today?**

 **By the way, that was directed at the one person who decided to follow the story. Good for you! You get to read the another one of the chapters that I hate!**

 **Now then... I don't own Pokemon, but Pokemon seems to own me.**

 **So please excuse me as I proceed to shove the friendship aspect of this straight down your throat.**

 **Chapter Four**

 ** _Nope._**

" _So what should I name you?"_

I looked over at my newly caught Azurill who seemed to shrug in response.

"Let's see…" I pulled my phone or if my bag and scrolled through a list of names I had saved. Is it strange that I went this far out of my way to find the perfect names for my Pokemon? I had written down a grand total of a shit ton of names and their meanings. When I got bored, I'd find more to add the list. Kind of like that one kid I used to know who spent their free time reading dictionaries.

"OoO!" I grinned as the perfect name dawned upon me. "How about Akaki?"

Azar, Pepper, and Azurill all started to discuss among themselves. I couldn't help but imagine them in a tiny courthouse, judging my taste in names.

Azurill ended up jumping up onto the bed I was sitting on, it looked like he was questioning me. "Basically, it means 'innocent.'"I explained. Azurill didn't seem to enjoy the idea.

I had rented a room in the Santalune Pokemon Center at this point. All three of my Pokemon spent all the time we were here jumping on the beds and tackling each other. That is, until I realized I had to name Azurill. At which point I spent a good two hours trying to calm everyone down so we could decide. I still thought Akaki was a good choice despite Azurill's cries to convince me otherwise.

"Oh why not." I pouted, holding Azurill up to the ceiling. "It fits you perfectly! You're just too cute for any other name!" I held Azurill to my chest and fell back on the bed. He had this tiny little face that just made me want to pinch it. So. Much. Azurill cried again, but this time it seem to be in happiness. Azurill had finally agreed to the name. He just needed love for me to convince him, but judging by the looks on Pepper and Azar's faces, they wanted attention, too.

I placed Akaki on the bed beside me and kneeled down in front of Azar and Pepper. "Now, you two have to at least try and get along with Akaki, ok?"

Pepper scoffed at Akaki. I hadn't really known any of my Pokemon that long, but Pepper was probably going to act stuck up pretty regularly.

Azar was simply sitting down on the floor, glaring at Pepper for not doing what I said. Azar then rose to his feet and jumped on the bed next to Akaki. The two touched their tails together then proceed to casually talk to each other, much to Pepper's displeasure.

"Tell ya what." I scratched Pepper's head. "There are a few shops around here for Pokemon, I'll take you to those in the morning."

Pepper flew up beside me and perched herself on my shoulder. I took that as a yes.

Now look, just because I'm a white teenage girl I don't automatically love to go shopping. It's probably because I hate making decisions, or something along those lines. Every time my mother suggested I go to the mall with some friends I would curl up into a ball and refuse to go.

I'm normal, I swear.

The point is, this was something special for me. I wouldn't go to the store with my old friends, but now I can go with my current ones, my Pokemon.

With a sigh, I said Bonne Nuit to my Pokemon and shut off the lamp illuminating the room as the moon's faint glow painted itself across the walls.

Until the fated shopping spree was to arrive, I figured it was in my best interest to sleep. I had spent the last day prancing about Kalos and fighting people. It all seemed just a bit too farfetched to be true...

I saw it best to not dwell too long on the subject. Instead, I sheltered myself under the sheets, slowly glancing around the room. Pepper was perched on the lampshade, but I had no idea how I would tell whether or not a bird was sleeping. Akaki was still rolling about the floor, and Azar was resting on my pillow, curled up into a ball.

I let myself smile at the three of them, even as my gaze fell to the small window at the edge of the room. Outside, the night sky barely looked over the tree-coated skyline, and the stars were lucky enough to get a chance to shine.

Back in Alola, we were always told that the stars were not mere balls of gas, but that they were holes in the sky, left there by the gods so that the heavens may shine down on earth at night. Without them, the night would just be marked by the absence of light, and nothing would survive through it.

Each room in the Pokemon Center came with a candle. They weren't scented but they always filled the room with a distinct lavender aroma. When the lights went out, the flame of the candle continued to dance along the walls, free of any worry. I'd always stare at the walls as I watched them dance, wishing I could join them.

I'm not quite sure why I brought this up; it's just what came to mind as I drifted off to sleep that night.

* * *

Twelve hours later I was hauling around a bag full of potions and berries. Exhausted, I threw my stuff down onto a bench. "Why did I agree to this?" I huffed. These were the reasons I hated shopping.

I sat slumped down on the bench, glaring at the people prancing about happily in the town. It almost felt like they were mocking me. Even the fountain in the square seemed to do the same. "You need a bath" It called out to me. The fountain in question was built with a Roselia statue on top of it, again reminding me of how horrible I probably smelt. I mean, when the pokemon the statue is of literally has flowers for fists, you know it smells great rather perpetually.

Meanwhile, Pepper was chirping happily while flying around my head. Akaki bounced up and down trying to reach my bag, presumably to steal it's contents. And Azar was perched calmly on my shoulder, watching out for any threats. Azar had actually remained like this the entire time. While Pepper and Akaki constantly asked for me to buy them more shit, he just sat still on my shoulder.

"I think that's enough shopping for today." I sighed. My legs had practically turned into spaghetti by now, and I must've dislocated my shoulder with the weight of the bag on top of it for so long. I felt like I was forgetting to do something, something important.

Impatient, Akaki jumped on top of my head and yanked my hair forwards in an attempt to get me to move.

"Akaki!" I yelled, prying him from my head. Even as he pulled out my hair, I didn't feel that much pain. As it turns out, a lack of sleep can make you unresponsive to pain. "Please, I'm done for the day. Maybe tomorrow." I yawned, even in the middle of my sentence.

Akaki squirmed in my hands. To think I thought Pepper was the only brat on my team. I was about to return him to his Pokeball, until I saw a building out of the corner of my eye and a lightbulb went off in my head. "Alright," I shot Akaki a devilish grin. "I'll keep going."

With Akaki prancing around on my head, and Pepper and Azar in my arms, I headed over to a small building next to the Pokemon Center. It was much bigger on the inside than the outside, like the TARDIS. The small bell attached to the door sang it's forewarning song as we entered, and Akaki's glee suddenly faded.

"Kay, Akaki! Here you are. We're shopping for me now!" I grinned at the Azurill who was now giving me a glare that I didn't think was possible from something so cute.

I was a bit disappointed when I discovered that the boutique only sold hats, but I probably couldn't afford anything else anyway so…

"How bout this one?" I picked up a white cycling cap and placed it on my head. I also made sure to strike a few poses, just to annoy Akaki.

At this point, Akaki looked pissed. In fact, Azar was the only one who seemed to be enjoying this. Despite being the only female, Pepper dug her way into my bag and recalled herself into her Pokeball. I guess gender roles don't apply to Pokemon.

Azar jumped cheerfully at my new hat. For some reason I trusted his opinion, so I bought it. Now I was officially broke.

"Sorry, Akaki, I would keep shopping with you, but I'm straight out of money." If my skirt had any true pockets, I would've turned them inside out. My apology was very obviously sarcastic.

Akaki fumed at the idea of only having ten thousand pounds of treats. He paced back and forth so much, I was beginning to regret naming him something that roughly ment "Innocent". In fact, Akaki was beginning to throw a tantrum. He flailed his arms in the air over and over, all until I ended up taking a Water Gun to the face.

 _Those extra clothes my mom packed may come in handy._

* * *

It was just some jeans and a green T-shirt, but it worked for now. Dammit Akaki. Though, I must admit the outfit goes quite well with my new hat, and I wouldn't have to take a shower anymore.

 _No._

 _I was supposed to be mad right now._

I groaned. "So what now?" I at least made time to glare at Akaki. Now, I couldn't even leave Santalune until my clothes dried out. I threw myself, face first, onto the bed in my room in the Pokemon Center. It was only about 1:00, but I was ready to sleep.

Akaki rolled himself into a ball and rolled in circles, trying to act cute. I rolled my eyes. "I won't fall for that again." In response, Akaki puffed out his cheeks and plopped down on the floor.

Laughing at the blue ball of regret, Pepper nudged Azar's leg then chirped something at him. Azar then made his way over to my bag and pulled out the map my mom gave me.

"I'm sorry you two…" I sighed, holding my hand to my face. "But I really don't want to do anything else today."

Pepper pecked at the Santalune City Gym on the map.

I rocketed up to my feet. "Oh yeah! C'mon you three we've got stuff to do!" I recalled Pepper and Akaki, and let Azar on my shoulder. "You ready?"

Azar nodded, but he seemed taken aback by my sudden burst of energy.

I bursted out the door to the Pokemon Center, straight past the Roserade fountain, and right up to the gym.

There was one problem, there just happened to be a girl blocking the entrance to the gym. She was wearing some weird yellow helmet. I don't know why.

"Um, excuse me?" I tapped her shoulder.

"Hey, stranger!" She pulled me into a bear hug. "Isn't cruising around on your Roller Skates the best thing ever?!" This chick was really in the process of draining my life force and had the audacity to talk about roller skates. Why did so many people from Kalos act like this? Up until now, when I thought of Kalos I imagined a county where everyone wore expensive clothes and It rained croissants.

"Uhm, I don't-"

"Wait! Do you mean to tell me that you don't even own a pair of Roller Skates?!" She glanced at Azar on my shoulder and didn't even give me time to respond. "Then how about this: if you beat me in a Pokemon battle, I'll give you a pair!" She placed her hands proudly on her hips. "I can never say no to a contest, not me! So how about it? You wanna battle?"

"Uhm… well I-"

"Great! Go Zigzagoon!"

So this girl just forced me into a battle. Why was I not surprised?

I sighed and sent out Pepper. Azar glared at me when I did; he seemed ready to battle. "What? Pepper needs experience, too." I shrugged and turned back to Pepper, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Just tackle until it faints."

The battle was just as interesting a it sounds, so I beat her pretty fast.

"Wow! You're good!" She glanced back at the gym. "Oh! Were you by any chance trying to get to the gym?" Once again she didn't give me any time to respond. "I am so sorry! Here, I promised you these." She handed me a pair of Roller Skates. "They just clip on the bottom of your shoes so you can speed around anywhere! Oh and if you challenge the gym, there are a whole bunch of trainers on route 22 to help you train. I should probably get going. ByeByeAGoGoAndAllThatShazz."

 _What. The. Fuck._

"Uhhhhhhh. What the- why? How even? no?" The roller skatey girl had already left by the time I regained the ability to talk, but she had mentioned something about a new Route. That meant I could catch another Pokemon. I looked to Azar. "Soo.. You wanna train a bit? Gotta catch another Pokemon? Gotta catch em all?" I chuckled a bit at my own horrid joke.

At the thought of another Pokemon, Azar seemed to frantically nod his head. Off to route 22 it was, then. I shoved the roller skates into my bag and headed off towards the City gate. I couldn't help but think that Azar just wanted someone to talk to other than Pepper and Akaki, but I agreed with that.

"Here we go!" I yelled, running off into the tall grass. New route ment new Pokemon and new friends. Now I could add a fourth member to my team. Imagine the possibilities! It could be anything, even a Mew! Even a-

 _Never mind._

Standing in front of me was a Psyduck. A Psyduck, out of anything it could be. I found a fucking Psyduck. I still caught it. I named her Clair. It's short for Clairvoyant.

 _Arceus, I'm lonely._

Bad jokes aside, it still was probably a good choice to train a bit, but I mean, all i really did was run back to the Pokemon Center in disappointment after i caught Clair. I figured that i could just challenge the gym in the morning. After all, because of Akaki i still had to wait for my clothes to dry, even if it meant I had to spend a third day in this horrible city.

All I had to do now, was go to the gym.

* * *

 **Pfft.**

 **Well, I'm done with that. If it seems rushed, that's because it was. I tried to hide it with a bunch of bad jokes, but that probably won't work too well.**

 **I can probably update again later today, just to make up for how much I hated this chapter. This is what happens when a writer decides to write a bunch of chapters in advance.**

 **Blah Blah Blah. Review me. Please.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I should probably stop adding notes before the story...**

 **Oops.**

 **I don't own Pokemon.**

 **Chapter Five**

 _ **This is it**_

I may or may not have expected to see a bunch of weights and training gear when I walked in the gym.

Don't laugh.

It was called a gym! What else was i supposed to expect?

 _Moving on…_

The walls of the gym were covered in strange pictures of bugs that were all tall enough to reach the ceiling (no, there were not any weights). My favorite one would have to be the Butterfree flying among some yellow flowers. As it turned out, every trainer in the gym used bug type pokemon. Luckily, my strongest Pokemon was fire type, so this would be a breeze. With my optimism behind me, I jumped face first onto the fire pole connected to the next floor of the gym.

Suddenly, my stomach lurched. I tried to stand up, but i couldn't. Frantically, I flailed my limbs, only to realize I was not on solid ground. I had completely missed the pole. My heart fell. How far was the next floor? I already felt like i was falling for millennia. What if i-

 _Oh._

I was greeted by give from what felt like a safety net covered in glue. Prying myself from the substance, i discovered i had actually landed on a giant spider web, at least forty feet across. Which was just, disgusting. Even as i stood up pieces of the web remained stuck to my arm, and it actually made me happy I was forced to wear my jeans because of Akaki. Though, I did my best to remain mad at such an adorable creature.

I presumed i was supposed to follow a path of water droplets formed on the thin legs of the web. That could _not_ be safe, but whatever. As it turns out, it's quite hard to walk when your feet are sticking to the floor like glue. I actually had to pry each leg off the web until I reached the first water droplet. I expected the water to clean the web of my feet, but instead when i came within a foot of it, the droplet just fell off the web and to the floor below with a satisfying _plop_. It wasn't until then that i realized how far below me the ground really was.

Looking back on this, I probably could've called out Clair or Akaki to wash the web off my feet, but Clair still only knew scratch and I was still mad at Akaki.

 _This was gonna be a long day_

About an hour later, i had made my way through the maze of web. A single strand of web led to a wooden platform in front of me. On the platform was an orange and yellow tent, as well as a woman, the gym leader, Viola. She wasn't much taller than me, but that wasn't out of the ordinary. Viola had bleach blonde hair that was cut to a bob. Around her neck was a black camera; had she taken all the pictures in the gym? She _was_ surrounded by film equipment, after all.

I stepped up to the platform, awkwardly pulling my feet off the web as i walked. I must admit, It felt great just to be on solid ground again, but I still had trouble keeping my balance. I still felt rather seasick.

"That determined expression… That glint in your eyes that says you're up to the challenge…" Viola smiled, desperately trying to ignore the stumbling teenager in front of her. I couldn't help but think she had a script for this and said the same thing to everyone, just to make them feel special. "It's fantastic! Just fantastic! Is this your first time challenging a gym?"

I nodded, still trying to regain my balance.

"Fantastic!" Viola clasped her hands together and gave me an evil smirk, like she knew she would beat me. "Whether it's the tears of frustration that follow a loss or the blossoming of joy that comes with victory…They're both great subjects for my camera!" She was _definitely_ reading a script. Either that, or she spent two years in theatre. "Fantastic! This'll be just fantastic! Now come at me! My lens is always focused on victory- I won't let anything ruin this shot!" She slyly snapped a picture of me hobbling backwards to start the battle. It felt great to have my stupidity immortalized by a gym leader. Just wonderful.

"Azar!" Fennekin came out onto the field in a flash of white light, letting out a battle cry as he did. I'm pretty sure it was _supposed_ to be intimidating, but he still sounded so cute.

Viola laughed. "A fire type huh? Then how about...Surskit!" She threw her Pokeball upwards, and next thing i knew a Surskit came crashing to the ground in front of Azar.

"Shit." I mumbled. I knew Surskit was a water type, but Azar was my only decent Pokemon. It's worth a shot anyway. "Ember!"

"Bubble!" Viola called. Surskit released a storm of bubbles which violently popped in Azar's face before he had a chance to use Ember. Eventually, Azar did retaliate, but I had absolutely no idea how much damage he had done. I did, however, know Azar had lost just about a third of it's health. Surskit was still standing fine, but Ember was my only decent move. Azar knew scratch, but it's attack stat was beyond lacking. He knew Howl, but that would waste a turn, Ember might be my only cho-

"Water sport!" _Shit._ I was thinking for too long. Azar tried to use ember again, but i could tell just by looking that it did almost nothing. There was only one thing I could do…

"Bubble!" Viola again ordered. The bubbles came again, just as i thought they would.

"Howl!" I yelled. Azar let out a sharp cry, only to begin glowing. Azar's attack stat rose.

Azar was having trouble standing, the last bubble really did a number on it. Luckily, I came prepared. Some would call it cheating, but it was apparently perfectly legal, so I pulled out a potion from my bag and let Azar swallow the thing whole. It didn't completely restore it's health, but it did enough. Again, Surskit used bubble, but it didn't do enough damage to warrant another potion. It used bubble yet again after that, but then it was enough. Both Azar and Surskit could barely move, and it seemed Viola and I had the same idea. We both pulled a potion out of our bag and gave it to our pokemon.

"Water sport!"

"Scratch!"

"Bubble!"

"Scratch!"

"Quick Attack!"

"Scratch!"

That was it. With Azar's final scratch he had managed to knock Surskit out cold. Viola furrowed her brow in response. "Impressive." She grumbled, recalling her Pokemon. With a smirk, she reached into her bag and pulled out another Pokeball. She launched it onto the field and called out to her secret weapon. "Vivillon!" She sent out a pink and white Vivillon. How hard could this be? It was basically a butterfly, right?

"Infestation!"

 _As it turns out, Vivillon has the Pokedex #666._

I may only be a newbie, but i knew what Infestation did. It hurt you once every turn, and didn't even allow you to switch out, basically a bug type Fire Spin. To make it worse, scratch barely did any damage. Though it may not seem like a problem because of the potions i had left, it was. I only had three potions.

Azar was getting tired, i could see that, so i had no choice but to pull another potion out of my bag and give it to him. I _would_ switch out, but that wasn't exactly a choice anymore.

Apparently, Vivillon had taken the time to raise its defence as I healed Azar. Now Ember ember again seemed like the only choice i had, as i knew scratch would do little to nothing.

"Infestation!"

"Ember!" It seemed to to a fair amount of damage. Infestation did nothing for now, so I seemed fine.

"Infestation!" Viola absolutely wanted to trap Azar in this battle. He was running out of health i needed to-

"Ember!" I yelled without thinking. Azar needed a potion. What did i just do? Why would I-

My thoughts were interrupted by Vivillon's cries.

I won.

 _How?_

 _What?_

Viola sighed. "Young trainer you…" She recalled the fallen butterfly "no, it wasn't you alone."

I stepped back. She sounded so depressed, or at least until…

"You _and_ your Fennekin have shown me a whole new depth of field! Fantastic! Just fantastic!" Viola eagerly rummaged through her bag and pulled out a small metallic badge in the shape of a bug. It felt like ice between my fingers, funny, since i ended the battle with an Ember. "With that bug badge, Pokemon up to Lv. 30 will listen to your orders in battle… Yup, even if you get them from trades! And here!" She pulled out a silver disc, and again handed it to me. "This TM commemorates your win against a pro photog like me. That TM is for a move called infestation. Use it and it can instantly teach your Pokemon the move!"

"Uh," I flipped the disc in my hands. "How do i use it? It's a disc. Do Pokemon eat it, or what?"

"That's one of life's great mysteries, my friend! I think you should be on your way." The tent behind Viola opened revealing a staircase up to the darkness of the first floor.

"That doesn't answer my question." I still stared, confused, at the disc in my hands.

"I know!" Viola cheered. "Now leave." She shoved me off onto the staircase. A door opened revealing the blinding light from the entrance. "Have fun!" Viola kicked me through the door and watched me stumble and fall on my way. I was about to stand up, turn around, and get her to answer my question, but the door closed before i could. What's more, there was no handle on this side as the door itself was the butterfree picture from earlier.

"Ok then." I shrugged, deciding it was best to just shrug off that altercation. I got the badge after all, what else would i want? Besides, of course, an explanation on how the hell i'm supposed to use a TM. _Whatever._

* * *

There were still about six hours left in the day. Judging my my map, that should be enough time to get to Lumiose City. Of course right as I was about to leave i was stopped by someone. In the middle of Santalune. Why did this keep happening to me?

"Oh, you… you are, aren't you?" She stuttered. She carried a camera with her, just like Viola, but her hair was noticeably darker."You're one of the kids who got a Pokemon from Augustine Sycamore, right?"

"Is that his name?" I laughed. It was more of a statement than a question. After all, he knew my name almost instantly, why had I not known his?

"I see you beat Viola, even at your age." She praised, looking at the Bug Badge that I had since pinned to my hat. "You see, Viola is actually my younger sister. I'm Alexa by the way. I'm a journalist myself…"

"A family of photographers, huh?" I was trying to make conversation, but failing horribly. Azar was pacing in circles around my feet out of boredom, and I just wanted to go on to Lumiose. "Who takes the photos at family gatherings?"

"Viola." Alexa stood silently after that, her eyes darting back and forth as if she was searching for something to say. "OH! I know! Why don't you take this to celebrate you getting the Bug Badge!" Alexa handed me a strange green band with all sorts of yellow dangly stuff on it. "Thats an Exp. Share. If you turn it on every Pokemon on your team will earn Exp. Points, even if they don't battle."

"Seems overpowered…" I looked up at her to ask Alexa where she worked, but she had already gone. People from Kalos scare me; I was actually quite relieved when she left. I thought I was the one who was bad at conversation.

Welp. There was a whole route in front of me, might as well catch another Pokemon. I jumped head first into a patch of grass on my right, literally rolling around until i hit something. Admittedly, the grass felt amazing. It wasn't as good as the bath I desperately needed, again, but oh well.

"Oh dear Arceus, it's so cute!" I squealed. In the midst of my rolling a Skitty jumped on top of me and started rubbing it's head against my cheek. It was somehow even softer than Azar. I stood up with the Skitty in my arms, laughing hysterically. Skitty was, even in my arms, playing with it's tail like a cat toy. He was curled up into a ball, swiping at his own tail as it swung in front of his face.

Azar jumped up onto my shoulder to get a better look at the cat. He simply eyed down Skitty, inspecting what could be another member of my team.

I held Skitty up to the sky. "Do you you want to come travel with me?"

Skitty frantically nodded his head before jumping to my head and running in circles on top of it. This was probably the easiest capture I'd ever have.

"What should i name you then?" I flipped through the list i had on my phone. It was quite hard to find any masculine names that meant cute. Quite hard indeed. I found one and only one. "Felinus. A late latin name meaning cat-like." I Looked at Skitty who was prancing happily at the sound of the name. Strange, i didn't like it very much. "I'll call you Fel for short." I stood up with Fel in my hands, maybe he was just happy to have a name at all. For the rest of the route, Fel remained asleep on top of my hat, demoting Azar to forever remain on my shoulder. Azar didn't seem to mind to terribly, but he still didn't look very happy about it.

Here's something interesting: the route was covered, and i mean **covered,** in hedge mazes. Most had some items in them, as well as a gardener who was way too content with tending to them. After the first few of those there was a 40 foot fountain, or rather 12.192 meters, because Kalos uses the metric system. Kalos apparently also loves fountains. I mean, this was the third one i found for fuck's sake.

There were two skaters who spent all their time rolling around this giant fountain who really wanted to battle. So yeah, nothing interesting. No, the **really** interesting thing came after that. I had just finished beating up this kid's mom (don't ask) when Azar started glowing. This wasn't like when his attack roze, this was something new. Azar had morphed from a fire fox to a fire fox in a skirt THAT WAS STANDING TO TWO LEGS! Unbeknownst to me, there's this thing called evolution that Pokemon do where they become newer and stronger versions of themselves. Azar couldn't stand on my shoulder anymore, but that's what i had Fel for, right?

After that I used my newly evolved Braixen to beat up some kid and his Magikarp. Normally I'd feel bad, but this kid kept mimicking his Pokemon by flopping on the ground and making splashing noises. You have no idea how badly i wanted to go back to Alola.

Just imagine the conversation. I return home after my journey and my mom asks how it went. At which point I give a satanic grin and explain. "Well, I ran into a schizophrenic kid who thought he was a Magikarp."

Seriously, out of all the Pokemon to be, this kid chose Magikarp. Specifically a Magikarp that only knew splash. I know he's a kid, BUT C'MON!"

Luckily, that didn't last long, as it only took me about two hours to reach the gate to Lumiose. Finally, I was free from the tiny children who were climbing all over me, asking for a battle.

Unluckily for me, there were two people blocking the gate. One boy and one girl. "'Ello there!" The boy called out to me in a heavy English accent. He had short blonde hair and was wearing an all white suit, beside the blue handkerchief around his neck. "'Ave you ever 'eard of a Pok-mon called Flabebe?" I wasn't exactly willing to talk to this guy, but he was currently standing between me and Lumiose City. This was the only way to get passed him.

I Nodded. "Yeah, they're pretty common. Why?"

There was also the girl standing next to him. She too wore a white suit, except she wore a skirt and her handkerchief was red. Her skin was also just a shade darker and her hair was a dark purple. She seemed to be the one to answer my question. "Flabebe is-now brace yourself-a Fairy-type Pokemon!"

I glared at her. I didn't understand why that was so important.

The blonde seemed to mistake my glare for confusion. "Fairy type is a new Pok-mon type that-"

"This turned the entire type-matchup system on it's head!" The girl interrupted

"What?" I kept glaring. "Fairy types aren't knew. Back home we even had a few Legendary Pokemon who were all Fairies."

"Really?" She put her hand on her hip. "Where ya from?"

"Alola."

"Oh." She rolled her eyes. "Smartass."

"Anyway…" The blonde coughed out.

"My name's Sina!" She interrupted again. Was this just a thing people from Kalos did? "It's a beautiful name for a beautiful lady!"

"I'm Dexio." The blonde introduced. "Two ears ago, Professor Sycmore intrusted me with a Pokedex. You could call me a Pok-mon-voyage veteran."

"Really?" I laughed. "Can i call you PokeDexio?"

"No." Sina crossed her arms. "That's _my_ nickname for him."

"Well." Dexio forced the conversation forward. "We're supposed to show you to the láb. So, you should probably follow us."

"OK! Let's get this show on the road!" Sina ran ahead followed by Dexio, and finally me. We stepped into the gate and I felt the sudden flow of air conditioning surround me. I had never noticed how stuffy it was outside.

I'm yet to understand why I trusted those two so quickly. They were two people that I'd never met who work for a scientist that I'd never met, but was still expected to inexplicably trust.

"So, how are you and Braixen doing?" Dexio asked, looking at Azar, who was following close behind me, and completely ignoring the Skitty on my head.

"Great, actually." I thought back to the gym battle. Never underestimate the power of a tiny fox.

"That's good to hear." Dexio handed me a silver disc, a TM. "That's the TM for Return. It-"

"How do i use it?" I interrupted. Kalos was getting to me. Everyone here interrupted other people, and now I was doing it, too.

Dexio and Sina just laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

"This is a real question!" I yelled. Seriously how would i use it?

"Lumiose City is right through this gate." Sina was still laughing. "Go on already!"

Before i could respond Sina had shoved me into Lumiose. This city was _much_ larger than i thought. The city was coated in buildings that seemed to reach all the way up to the night sky, but there was one that was so much more magnificent. I believe it was called Prism Tower. It shot straight up to the sky and ripped through it with a large spike on it's head. I'm yet to understand why or how people managed to build that thing in the dead center of a city as big a Lumiose.

I felt like I forgot something important. What was I forgetting?

"The lab's this way!" Sina ran in front of me and supposedly on to the lab. I ran after her, stopping to look at every single Cafe and store on the way. THERE WERE SO MANY! Seriously, There were too many for me to even get close to counting, especially with the fat C I got in my algebra class.

Containing my excitement, i figured it would be a good Idea to run to the Pokemon Center. In Lumiose, the Pokemon Centers were built far different than any other city. Instead of being their own building, they were built to share a frame with the surrounding shops, creating one cohesive structure. Even so, the interior looked exactly the same. Even the nurses looked the exact same.

"Good evening! Welcome to the Pokemon Center." The nurse smiled at me. "Would you like to rest your Pokemon?"

I nodded and handed her my Pokemon. Lumiose was just so big, i'm surprised i didn't get lost already. But it was strange how none of the lights had been on in most of the city; I wondered why that was.

"Thank you for waiting. We've restored your Pokemon to full health. Do you need anything else?"

"Oh!" I just remembered i was still wearing my clothes from yesterday. "Can i rent a room for the night?"

"Sure!" Nurse Joy handed me a small key. "Yours is room 124."

"Thank you!" I bowed, just to be polite. I then ran straight up to my room and threw back on my black shirt and skirt. I kept my hat, though.

"Don't worry." I whispered to one of my Pokeballs. "I forgive you now, Akaki." With My Pokeballs on hand, I ran back off to the lab

* * *

 **Hey you! The one who reviewed! I like you, you're cool! It's just that I sorta noticed something in your review, you used the wrong form of to/too/two when you ment the too that meant "also". Heh, sorry, I'm a bit of a grammar nazi when it comes to other people, but I'm not too great at spelling, myself, so I guess I should shut up.**

 **On a side note, I don't know why, but I've always imagined Dexio with an English accent. It just makes him seem more professional to me.**

 **And I only just now noticed that it's September 11th. If you're not from the U.S then you probably don't know what that is. In which case, good for you. Don't move here, just look at the presidential election we've got going on.**

 **I was about to add some joke about 9/11 here, but I'm afraid of conflict and I don't want to offend anyone.**


	6. Chapter 6

**DISCLAIMER: You know the drill.**

 **Chapter Six**

 _ **J'adore Celui**_

" _So we finally meet."_

In front of me was Augustine Sycamore. His smile contradicted the general vibe I got from him. He didn't seem too well rested, even though the faint stubble he had around his chin was clearly intentional. His long white lab coat blew behind him in a ghostly manner as he glided across the floor to meet me. The small amount of moonlight drifting in through the window as the sun set didn't seem to help, either.

"Fantastic! You're here!" He greeted in a purely optimistic voice, much to my surprise. "Come this way won't you?" I followed him back to his desk which was situated right in front of a window overlooking the city. The concrete skyline had now completely covered any hope of me watching the sunset and the stars had slowly started to poke out from behind the sky, only to then be covered by the clouds.

"Many thanks for coming all the way from Vaniville Town, or, I guess is should say Alola." Sycamore chuckled, shoving his apathy into a dark corner of his mind. "I'm Professor Sycamore! It's a pleasure to finally meet you! How is your Pokemon journey so far? Have you met many different Pokemon?"

I simply smiled and let out all of my Pokemon, even Akaki. Fel immediately ran straight to my leg and seemed to hug it. Azar stood firmly behind me, doing his best to ignore Akaki as he tried to attack Pepper. Akaki was flailing his arms as he bounced up and down, trying to scratch the flying Pidgey. Clair just sat, dumbfounded, in the corner as she stared out the window in blissful repose.

"Ah, you only have five." The professor threw his hands in the air. "Fantastic! Let me have a quick look at your Pokedex and see!" I handed him my Pokedex. He seemed to be scanning it for anything he could find. "Hmm… So you've seen 31 kinds of Pokemon in Central Kalos, then." He threw his hands in the air once again, making sure to hand me my Pokedex beforehand, so as to not launch it across the room. "Oh ho! The pages are starting to get filled in It's starting to look good! Well now, you DO have a certain je ne sais quoi! I have a good feeling about you!"

The lab itself was awfully spacious on the top floor, where Sycamore and I were. The walls were coated in shelves that were packed, top to bottom, with random assortments of books. Some didn't even have anything to do with Pokemon. There was one book that caught my eye, specifically. It had something to do with a "ultimate weapon", but I thought it was best to avoid picking around in the room of someone I just met.

Sycamore took a deep breath to calm himself. "At first, I was thinking of choosing only one child from a town when I was deciding who to give a Pokemon to. In Vaniville Town, it was going to be the child of a Veteran Trainer I know. About then, I learned that the Rhyhorn racer Grace and her daughter were moving here. Here in the Kalos region, you're far away from everything you used to know… That really hit me right here…" He didn't bother pointing to his heart and only continued on. "Then it hit me-I should give you a Pokemon and have you travel around Kalos!"

It astounded me how rude, yet kind, people in Kalos could be. Kalos in general just had this strange aura to it. I suppose I could've just realized how new the region was to me and felt alien in it, but I had never truly felt that in any other region I lived in. Kalos was unfamiliar to me, somewhere I had never been before. Maybe I had only now realized that.

"Hi, Professor! It's Shauna." Shauna walked into the room with Calem close behind. Once she looked at me, her grin formed a small frown. "Aw, Fiera got here before us…" She made sure to not wear the frown for too long and quickly switched back to her optimistic self.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting." Calem sighed. Since I last saw him, the kindness in his voice had completely disappeared and had been replaced by his truer, more sarcastic tone. I didn't mind. In fact, it was rather refreshing when the beacon of hope, Shauna, stood right next to him.

"Fantastic! More of you!" Sycamore clasped his hands together. "I'd like to see how far each of you have come along so far, so we should each have a Pokemon Battle! Calem can go against Shauna, and I will battle Fiera."

Shauna's next comment about summed up the scenario. "A Pokemon battle? In the Lab? Why? How? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Oh, are you afraid of losing to me?" Calem raised his eyebrows. "You don't seem like the type to back down so early."

"No!" Shauna yelled defensively. "I know for a fact that I'll lose to you, Calem. Besides, why does Fiera get to battle the Professor?"

I took the time to recall most of my Pokemon, except for Azar and Fel. "It's because I'm special." I smiled.

"Bien entendu." Calem smirked. "That's a good word for it."

Azar and I glared at Calem. I wasn't used to sarcastic insults. How was I supposed to come up with a comeback? Ugh. One was right on the tip of my tongue, but I never figured out what it was. I _could_ make fun of his miniscule vocabulary, but that wouldn't work because Calem was bilingual. I could mock his accent, but it was a French accent so it was automatically better than mine. _Dammit! Why was this so hard?_

I just shrugged it off and set Fel on the floor so he could get a chance to battle. I would be the one to battle the professor and that was that. Though, it was rather hard to focus when I was constantly thinking about my failed comeback. **Urgh.**

First Sycamore sent out a Bulbasaur. It was, cute? I didn't really have time to think about it. AH! I should've told Calem that- no. That wouldn't work…

While I was trapped in my own regret, Fel was happily prancing around the Bulbasaur. He occasionally hit it with his tail while avoiding all and any attacks that were launched at him. He cheerfully jumped on and around the Vine Whips that Bulbasaur tried to to attack with and was energetic enough to constantly jump over each Pokemon that Sycamore sent out without stopping. After Bulbasaur, he sent out a Charmander who was beaten the exact same way, all without me yelling out a single attack. The same went for Squirtle.

Suddenly, I got an idea. "Calem!" I turned to the admittedly confused trainer, viciously wagging my finger as my idea again slipped from me. "Good. job?" I sighed and buried my face in my palms. I had been defeated.

"Did you even notice you won?" Calem laughed.

 _I did what?_

I turned back to Sycamore to see Fel running in circles on top of the fallen Squirtle's stomach, trying to chase his tail. I had no idea what just happened.

"Ha ha! You're too much for me!" Sycamore sighed. "You're really something, aren't you? Winning a battle, even without speaking." He paused for a few seconds before yelling. "I think I've about figured it out! Fiera! You are an interesting Pokemon Trainer indeed! It'd be fantastic if you took another Pokemon with you!" He handed me the Pokeballs of Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur. "Pick one!"

Me? Pick a Kanto Pokemon? Why? Unless-

 _Holy shit, am I Red?_

Ok, so back In Kanto, someone told me a story about this legendary trainer that managed to crush the mafia and become champion, all at the age of eleven. And no, I am not Red; I decided to be the 1% of people who chose Bulbasaur. After all, i already had both a water and fire type. Bulbasaur seemed like the only logical choice.

"That's simply wonderful! Sycamore exclaimed, seeing my choice. "Would you like to give your Pokemon a nickname?"

"Orrin!" I suddenly proclaimed, holding him up to the ceiling. Bulbasaur wasn't cute, intimidating, or even beautiful. Instead, he reminded me a bit of chocolate. If you have one it's great, but if you're stuck with it for too long it gets a bit annoying, unless you're in pain.

"Do you actually know where it comes from this time?" Calem mocked, referring back to when I named Azar.

I spat out my answer that might as well been copy-pasted straight from an article. "An anglicized form of ODHRÁN, which means 'little pale green one', derived from Irish odhra 'pale green, sallow' combined with a diminutive suffix. This was the name of a saint who travelled with Saint Columba throughout Scotland." I cackled at Calem's genuine surprise. " _Fight me._ "

Sycamore laughed. "Well Since you chose Bulbasaur, or Orrin, I should say. I'll give you this Mega Stone." He tossed me a strange stone that shimmered in the light as i moved it back and forth. When I caught it, my arms seemed to pulse, like I had pulled all the muscles in them at once. The stone seemed to constantly have that effect on my hands, as they shook at least once a second when I held it.

Sycamore chuckled, clearly amused by my fascination with this stone. He then turned to Shauna and Calem. "Come now, you two. Pick your Pokemon."

"I don't know which one to pick! It's so difficult!" Shauna pouted.

"It's ok." Calem groaned, contradicting his last statement. "Just take your time, then."

"Well, I've got a feeling everyone else will show up soon." Sycamore had this confident look on his face, like he was psychic and he knew when the others would show up.

As if following a queue, Tierno and Trevor walked in the room. "Hi, Professor Sycamore."

"What's this?" Trevor questioned. "Everyone is already here."

"See." The Professor laughed at the perfect timing. "Wonderful! Everyone's all here! So now that we're all here, i'd like to say a few words…" He took a deep breath and seemed to direct his attention to me. Sycamore did force himself to look at the others, as well. "Be the best trainer you can be. At the same time, remember to have fun traveling out with your Pokemon." He looked back at me. I didn't know what he was trying to tell me, but hopefully it wasn't important. It was probably just a coincidence. Right?

"Also," The professor ran his hand through his hair and attempted to shift the subject off his previous statement. "I want to ask for your help in solving the Kalos region's biggest Pokemon mystery: the secret and potential of Mega Evolution, a new kind of Evolution that occurs in battle." That's why I gave you a Mega Stone just now. It's an important clue!"

I looked at the Mega Stone in my hands. My hand was still shaking as I held it, but I don't think it was enough for anyone else to notice. There was something about it that scared me. It seemed hollow, as if it contained another creature's soul, or it was about to steal mine.

No. That was impossible, but I never thought of myself as paranoid.

"Mega Evolution?" Trevor seemed the most confused out of all of us. "What should we do about the Pokedex?"

"Trevor, my lad," Sycamore flicked his hair. "If that's what 'Best Trainer' means to you, then I want you to go out there and complete the Pokedex."

Unlike Trevor, Shauna was filled with pure excitement. "Mega Evolution sounds really interesting!"

 _Did it?_

Sycamore looked like he was beginning to get bored, or anxious. I couldn't tell. His foot started to tap as his eyes darted across the room before directing it's attention the the one who just spoke. "If you're investigating Mega Evolution, why don't you check out Camphrier Town? The town has a lot of history-you might find a hint there." He sighed, running his fingers though his hair. "Now listen, If you visit many different places to complete the Pokedex, you will probably see Pokemon with many ways of living and meet people with many ways of thinking. First, accept the ways of living and thinking that sometimes conflict with your own. And think about what's really important-this will truly broaden your horizons."

"I think being different from others is part of what makes me special. After all, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of insanity." Calem smirked.

"Special's a good word to describe you." I mocked. Calem only responded with an icy glare, everyone else followed it up with laughter. _That_ was the comeback I needed.

"Yeah," Calem sighed. "I'm just gonna stay at the Pokemon Center for the night. Bonsoir, I guess..." Calem gave a small wave and started towards the elevator in a desperate attempt to avoid further conversation, but he didn't reach it before me.

"Same." I folded my hands behind my back and just walked off in front of Calem. I stepped into the elevator before him and grinned as the doors closed without him, condemning Calem to another thirty seconds with everyone else. Turns out i've got a flair for the dramatic.

As an aside, I hate elevators. I really, **really** hate elevators, but In the interest of keeping this as short as possible, I've prepared a small list.

 **10 Reasons Why I Hate Elevators.**

 _-Elevator Music._

 _-Claustrophobia._

 _-The people that ride it with you._

 _-The feeling when the box suddenly starts to move._

 _-The awkward silence that ensues when there is no elevator music._

 _-The emergency stop button._

 _-The reminder that, at any moment, the box could fall and **you would die**._

 _-The thought of what might happen if the elevator became sentient._

 _-What if the elevator led a robot uprising?_

 _-The sudden realization that you left your life in the hands of a tiny metal box._

Basically, I have the same relationship with elevators as I do mirrors. I will avoid either of them at all costs, unless it's for dramatic effect.

I figured i might as well explore the lab a bit while I was there. Turns out, interrupting a stranger's work is a great way to get people to give you free stuff. Strange, I never thought to try it before. Someone gave me some Luxury Pokeballs, because those exist for some reason. Someone else gave me the TM for False Swipe, which reminded me…

"How do i use this?"

"Beg your pardon?"

"How do i use a TM?"

"You sure do."

"No, _how_ do i use it?"

"You sure do."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"It sure does."

"Fuck you."

"You sure won't."

Yeah, i could tell i wasn't getting anything out of her, so I just headed down to the first floor, a bit irritated that there was no staircase in this building. If i can't explore the lab I'll explore the city, instead. Talk to some more strangers. Get more free stuff. It's all completely normal and not at all goes against what we were taught as children to avoid strangers. So much for "Stranger Danger".

Of course, on the first floor i managed to overhear some sort of conversation, even before I stepped out of the elevator. That experience will probably become reason 11 of why I hate elevators.

"So, I will be able to meet them soon, then." The first voice was rough and masculine, almost as if he was spitting out flames as he talked. He definitely sounded like a smoker. Chainsmoker, perhaps.

"Yes." The second voice belonged to Sina. She had a distinct enough sound to her that it was easy to tell. Hell, even Shauna could do it.

"The children chosen by the professor… I wonder what potential they have."

At this point I had just stepped out of the elevator, but I still could only see Sina. The room looked completely barren. I stepped forward and heard the clack of my heel echo throughout the floor, startelling Sina and causing her to take a step back in surprise.

"And here's one of them now…" Sina's eyes had widened from either annoyance or alarm. Her mouth was completely stiff as the rocked back and forth on her heels. "Fiera... come here for a second."

As I came over i could finally make out the first voice. He was absurdly tall with fiery orange hair. He wore a jet black suit with red accents and a furred neck. Something about him just screamed "Hi i'm a sociopath! Don't talk to me."

"Oh! You received a Pokedex from the professor then…That is a wonderful thing, indeed." He was trying to be positive but his voice was still too monotone to be normal, and he laughed maniacally in between every one of his words. "You are one of the chosen ones. I am Lysandre. I've tried to learn as much about Pokemon as i can to help build a brighter future. Professor Sycamore has taught me so much. Knowledge is power, after all. Put your life to good use."

I didn't know how to respond to such a speech. Lysandre spoke as if I were fulfilling some prophecy to save the world. How insane was he? About half of me wanted to scream "stranger danger" and run away.

"Now listen!" He suddenly spoke up. "It is vital that this world become a better place. And the people and Pokemon chosen to make the world better must work tirelessly to achieve this goal." Lysandre straightened his tie and cleared his throat. "Remember this." He stared at me. His eyes were just as red as his hair. They flickered as if his brain was on fire, and if someone was trapped inside.

Lysandre saw the way I was eyeing him down and shifted his gaze to Sina."Well, I'll be off. Please give Professor Sycamore my best." He turned around to the door, took a few steps, and looked back at me before continuing out the door, muttering to himself. "My desire...it is for a more beautiful world!" Each of his individual steps echoed through my head. As he stepped out the door, a sudden feeling of dread swept over me.

I glanced at Sina, but I never let the door out of my sight. "Who was he?"

Sina snarled. " An egotistical jackass." She sighed and looked me in the eyes. "In this great big Kalos region, there are many different Pokemon. Learn about them. Love them. Blah blah blah, you know what I mean." She scratched her head and looked back at the door. "I don't really want to teach anyone life lessons right now."

A silence fell upon us as we both stared at the door in confusion. Sina seemed to know more about the situation than me, but she wasn't telling me much about it. Frankly, I understood that; Lysandre _was_ rather unnerving.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps behind me. They seemed rather frantic and sporadic, but I didn't have much time to analyze them, as the professor's voice soon drowned them out. I turned around to see him with a rather unusual, anxious, look painted across his face. "Fiera, I meant to warn you about something. What I said earlier, about loving your Pokemon, I'm afraid you may-"

"Professor." Sina interrupted him rather matter-of-factly. "Lysandre was just here."

Sycamore dropped his entire statement and raised an eyebrow at Sina. "What'd he say?"

"Same as before." Her eyes fell. "Same as always."

"Uhm." I looked between the two trying to make sure they didn't forget my presence. "What were you trying to warn me about?"

"Fiera." Sycamore stated. "Just find someplace to sleep for the night."

* * *

 _That was certainly something._

I actually forgot how late it was. It was obviously dark out, but the lights in the city usually made it seem as if it was always day, not that I would know. It was probably about 6:00 when I first got to Lumiose, and I couldn't remember the last time I ate. Seriously, I think I had forgotten to eat the entire day, but with whatever just happened, I wasn't very hungry anymore.

I did my best to let that all go, but it just sort of stuck with me. I needed something to clear my head. As I looked at the blonde bush on my head, I figured a haircut would be a good idea. Maybe I should just stop by the Pokemon Center on the way...

"I'm sorry we're all booked for the night." As i walked into the Pokemon Center i heard the nurse frantically apologize to someone who was trying to get a room. "There's a hotel somewhere in the city. It's just, we're really busy because of the blackout."

"I don't think I can afford a hotel." A boy replied with a sigh. Wait a second, that was Calem.

"Uh Calem?" I tapped on his shoulder and gave the back of his head an admittedly tired smile.

He spun around. "Fiera! Sorry," Calem scratched the back of his head and glanced back at the nurse. "It's just that, I guess I don't have a room for the night."

"Blackout, right?" I asked, rhetorically. "If you need to, you could share a room with me for today."

"Uhm-"

"Oh relax," Mocking Calem was far too fun to be healthy. "It's fine if you just sleep on the floor." I tossed him the room key before he could argue with me. "Feel free to go ahead. I was just going to drop by the salon and get a haircut or something. Unless…" I inched closer to him. "Do you wanna come with me?"

Calem stared at the ground, repeatedly tapping his foot. "Why not?" He shrugged. "I've always wanted to change something about this whole thing." He laughed, pointing to his unkempt hair.

"Oh really?" I inquired, smirking.

"Yep."

I smirked. "Well then, follow me!" I tugged Calem along by the arm, dragging him out onto the street, past several confused bystanders who probably thought Calem was getting mugged. I could hear Joy's laughter even as we walked out.

"You know I can walk on my own right?" Calem pulled himself out of my grip and tried to regain his balance on his feet, after we had already gotten quite far down the street. "Where is this place, anyway?"

"Right here," I gestured to the black and white door built into the buildings behind me.

Calem laughed at his own stupidity. "How the hell did I not see that before? It's right next to the Pokemon Center."

"I don't know. Maybe you're just an idiot." I laughed nervously. "Maybe I'm just using you as a way to escape my own problems."

"What-" I interrupted Calem by pushing him through the door into the salon. My statement was best left alone.

"Welcome!" A feminine voice called once we were both inside. "Which one of you two is getting styling?"

"Oh, we both are." I responded, ignoring Calem, who was doing his best to glare at me.

"Oh! What would you like then?" The barber turned to Calem who just looked at her blankly.

"I have an idea." I gave Calem an evil grin. "I'd say trim it down to his shoulders and curl it a bit. Keep the bangs though. He obviously needs to wash his hair but I-"

"That sounds great!" The barber interrupted me before my list got too long. "I know just what you need!"

Calem again glared at me. "You better be paying for this."

"Oh relax, I'll even pay for a hat to wear over your hair if you don't like it."

"What about you?" The barber turned back to me. "What would you like?"

"Well I-"

"Actually," Calem interrupted me in favor of his own idea. "If _I'm_ changing that much, _you're_ going to cut your hair short."

This took me aback a bit. I was not prepared to change that much, but I also was not one to be outdone. "I'll do you one better, I'll dye it black _and_ cut it short. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Uhm. That will be 4,500, even." The barber gave the two teenagers in front of her a frightened smile.

I grunted and handed the barber the money, still glaring at Calem. It was expensive, but it was worth it.

Honestly, Calem turned out just the way I wanted him to. His hair still wasn't neat, but it was a good type of messy, like in a Professor Sycamore kind of way. Actually, it looked A LOT like Sycamore's hair, but this was better, because it was on Calem. Though, Calem still had his bangs, apparently he needs them for emotional support or something. Basically, he looked like the ocean went through an emo phase.

In regards to me, the short hair was actually quite refreshing. Much of the hair on my neck was left where it was and puffed out quite a lot. It looked more like a bob than just short hair, but I liked it. I also seemed to have longer hair in the front than i remember. That too was puffed out. And the color? Well Calem said he "had never noticed how black my eyes were" until he compared them to my hair. Strange, we actually looked like brother and sister because of our similar hair colors.

* * *

Well here we were, two teenagers, remarkably similar, out on the street, in the middle of the night, searching for something to do until Calem looked at me and spoke up. "Did you ever end up challenging the Santalune Gym?"

"Yep."

"Well, how'd it go?"

"I won."

Calem glared at me. "Well, duh. I can _see_ the badge pinned on your hat. I mean, what happened during the battle? Was it easy? Was it unbearably hard? Were you killed only to be brought back to life through the 'power of friendship'?"

I yawned, almost completely ignoring what Calem just said. "Apparently it 'looked a little easy'. Honestly, I thought Azar was gonna die because that Vivillon was one little-"

"You know what?" Calem scratched his head. "I'm actually not going to listen to you ramble, cause I'm starving and…" He sighed and turned to look at a building behind him. "Do you wanna go get some food?"

"Yeah." I nodded, suddenly aware of how hungry I really was. "But who would be open this late?"

"Fiera," He rolled his eyes. "It's only 9:37, and I know a pretty good cafe near here, if you wanna go."

"Fine. You pay."

"What?" Calem halted. "Why me?"

"Dude, I payed for your hair. There is no way in hell it's gonna be more expensive than that."

"You'd be surprised. People here _love_ their food." Calem stuck his hands in his pockets and started forward. "Come on then. The place is literally right here."

"So it is."

I don't know what it is about Lumiose, but everything in the city seems oddly close together. I know it's a city and I shouldn't be surprised, but we had only ever been in one half of the city and there was still enough to do to waste a full week, if we wanted to. Almost all the cafes look identical on the inside, with the exception of some coloring changes. Each of them had a bar, a ton of tables and chairs, some fancy paintings, and the inevitable person who'd _"accidentally"_ spill some coffee on someone's computer. There are about a dozen separate cafes in one half of the city alone, and all of them looked the same. _WHY?!_

So yes, I did end up following Calem into this cafe, but of course, the second we walked in we saw a familiar fiery haired smoker, along with some surprisingly good looking woman. She had short brown hair and wore way too much white for the time of year. Then again, Labor Day probobly didn't exist in Kalos. The eyes of everyone in the cafe were on her, whether she realized it or not. "Is that Diantha?"

"Who?" I honestly had no idea who Lysandre even was, let alone Diantha.

Calem hit himself in the face. "Right, you're from Alola. So get this, Lysandre is the head of Lysandre Labs, which created the Holo Caster. The, uh, hologram thingy we both have."

"So he named his company after himself?" I laughed. "Sina was right, Lysandre _is_ an egotistical jackass."

"Pretty much, always obsessing over beauty for no apparent reason." Calem started tapping his foot. "The other one is Diantha, a famous movie star, or something. My mother is practically obsessed with her."

"So, she's a female Benedict Cumberbatch?"

"Yep," Calem laughed and turned to look at the menu on a chalkboard above the counter. "Oh and since i'm paying, whaddaya want?"

I stared at the menu, wide-eyed. "They have chocolate croissants?"

"Duh," Calem chuckled. "This is Kalos. We even have cheese filled croissants. Ya want one?"

"YES!" I was actually on the verge of screaming, but instead I practically tackled Calem and squeezed all the air out of his lungs. "I had these every once in awhile back home. They are the single best things I have ever eaten."

Calem pulled himself out of my grip and brushed off his sleeves. "You know, there _is_ better food than that here."

"Nah." I shrugged. "If you give me any other options you'd be waiting for me to decide for a week, minimum."

"Well, this is Kalos. We do food _so_ much better than your petty Alolans." Calem then turned to order, and I just stood next to him. I will admit, I took the time to eavesdrop just a bit on Lysandre and Diantha.

 _Just a bit._

Much to my disappointment, Lysandre was the first to talk. "You played a young girl so wonderfully in your debut on the silver screen. Wouldn't you rather remain young and beautiful forever and always play such roles?"

"What a strange question…" Diantha's voice was much softer than the former's, but then again, that bar was set so low I wouldn't be surprised if she tripped over it. "Why would I want to play the same old roles forever? Youth may be beautiful, but it's not all there is to life. Everything changes. I want to live and change like that, too. So I look forward to playing different roles as I get older."

"You were chosen to be an actress, correct? Isn't it your duty to be forever beautiful? Everything beautiful should stay that way forever. I would make this world unchanging and eternal so all beauty would last forever. I can't stand the thought of the world becoming uglier." I didn't actually turn around to watch him, but I could hear Lysandre leaving after that. I am absolutely sure that guy could intimidate even a Mewtwo with his talks of "beauty". I had no idea what this guy would actually find beautiful, but it sure as hell didn't exist on Earth.

"Uhm, excuse me." _Oh._ I had spaced out staring at the counter in front of me, but once I had finally come back, I had discovered that Diantha was actually talking to me.

Calem and I spun around perfectly in sync, but I was the first to speak. "Hi..." She was a famous actress. How was I supposed to address a celebrity? I wasn't even close to being starstruck. It's just that people in Kalos usually had their own definition of manners; was there a separate way to speak to famous people? Whatever it was, I clearly wasn't following it, as my dumbfounded face clearly indicated that I had no idea what I was doing.

Diantha laughed. "Sorry, but you are two of Sycamore's pupils, correct?"

"Well...yes." I mumbled.

"Wonderful! It's only been three days and two of you have already fallen in love!"

Calem looked at me and laughed before turning to Diantha with the coldest possible glare he could come up with. "No."

"Hehehe! I'm an actor, remember. I can read your feelings. Don't just lie to me." Before either of us had the guts to respond, she continued. "I should be going. I have a schedule to keep, but it was nice talking to you two!" Diantha walked out, her heels clicking as she did, announcing her presence to everyone within ten meters. _I don't understand this region. I don't understand the people in this region. I want to go back to literally any other region._

"Well she's gone." Calem muttered, handing me my croissant as he still stared out the door.

"People are so weird here." I took a small bite out of the food Calem handed me before frantically shoving the rest into my mouth. "Holy primal Dialga." I swore, with food still in my mouth, not caring if it looked disgusting.

"Pardon?" Calem took a bite out of what looked to be a fancy sandwich.

"It's a Sinnoh thing." I waved him off. "This is really good."

"Like I said, Kalos is great with food. Especially bread based food." Calem stretched his arms. "Anything else ya wanna do? You know, while we eat?"

"Sure, but before we go." I pointed to the menu. "I want another one."

* * *

 **Oh god I'm finally FOR FORESHADOWING! There was a shit ton of it in this chapter. Some of it's kinda obvious, some not so much. If you didn't notice it its either because you're a horrible reader or I'm a horrible writer. Probably the latter.**

 **Well, this chapter didn't exactly help with me hating my writing; I feel like it's all moving a bit too fast. Most of that can probably be attributed to the fact that I'm home sick. I also have asthma, so any and all colds I get come along with a ton of breathing problems and usually even worse headaches. Of course when I was at the doctors, my mom just looked at me and said "I wonder what Zika does to people with asthma" because I live on the East Coast U.S.A and my parents love to make me paranoid. I've been having a fun week.**

 **Long story short, I have an infection in my chest wall. I think... It's something like that... Not that anyone would care.**

 **ANYWAY! I get most of my Pokemon names from a site called "Behind the Name", and I literally just took the meaning of Orrin's name straight from there. Feel free to look up the meanings of my Pokemon as I name them even though it's, you know, _effort._**

 ** _Oh,_ I have a question. In the Author's Note , should I start including translations for the French that's spoken? Since I get the feeling that most people reading this don't know the language and probably won't look up translations. Either way, I may not actually do it because it actually requires me to care.**

 **Trust me, the next chapter is going to take me awhile. I've rewritten it about three times already. The plot's starting to pick up and I'm trying to stop rushing through any of it. I'm also procrastinating by listening to Green Day nonstop and freaking out over Pokemon Generations.**

 **I'm sorry in advance, so you might as well review.**

 **Please.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Well, this took forever to write.**

 ***Insert clever variation of disclaimer here, and possibly a trigger warning. I don't even know anymore.***

 **Chapter Seven**

 ** _Felling_**

 _Here we go..._

"Calem, hey Calem." It was the next day and I was currently poking Calem to get him to wake up. Trust me, I can tell he sleeps more than a Snorlax just by this one day. I swear I was about to hit him in order to wake him up- with a chair- until I realized that there was a perfectly innocent Skitty resting on my head, completely unaware of my malicious thoughts. Instead of murdering the kid in front of me, I just glanced up at Fel and whispered. "He isn't going to wake up anytime soon, huh. Should I just leave him?" I took Fel's lack of a response as a yes and just decided to leave Calem where he was.

With Fel still on my head and Orrin trailing behind me, I headed to the next route leading to Camphrier Town. I found myself surprisingly eager to leave Lumiose City, and I honestly have no idea why. Maybe it was Lysandre... It was probably Lysandre.

The second I walked out onto the route a Lucario ran up to me and shouted. It's trainer came by to clarify what just happened. She rambled on about my "Aura" or something, and I understood none of it. Turns out she was the Shalour City Gym Leader and her name was Korrina, but I was in a bit of a rush so I stopped listening (I skipped through her dialogue faster than I read it). Throughout the entire "conversation", I had wished I was Fel. Fel was simply sleeping on my hat while Orrin acted out my thoughts by pacing back at forth the entire time. I'm just gonna move on and pretend none of that ever happened.

Naturally, my idiot self saw a skate park on the way to Camphrier and decided "Oh hey! I should try out those roller skates that one chick gave me for no reason! That's just a great idea when I've never roller skated my entire life!". I wasn't a good idea. I spent about five minutes rummaging through the black hole that is my bag before I found even a single roller skate. Meanwhile, Fel was chasing Orrin around the park as they both completely ignored me.

I eventually figured out how to clip the roller skates to my feet. I stood up. I fell flat on my face. Orrin was quite concerned about the gigantic nosebleed I had given myself, but Fel was still running in circles as he chased his tail. I have no idea why he does that, but he was still doing that even as Orrin gave me a bunch of leaves to use as tissues because I forgot to pack any.

So, I stuffed a bunch of leaves in my nose- It's just as comfortable as it sounds- and I just moved on through the route with Fel back on my head. I was trying as hard as possible to avoid any battles, but apparently there was a wild Skiddo watching my clumsy self as it went through every way to hurt itself. The Skiddo decided to interrupt a double battle I was having with these two twins on the side of the road. We had tried for about twenty minutes to get the Skiddo to leave, and that's probobly where I should pick this up...

"Hey! It's rude to ignore people!" The two twins spoke perfectly in unison, but I had watched far too many horror movies to be even remotely surprised. I merely stared at the Skiddo, who was perfectly happy sitting in the middle of what _was_ a battlefield. All attempts to get the Skiddo to move were unsuccessful, and every time we tried to move the battle, its followed us. Fel had then done the logical thing, and ran up and sat on the the Skiddo's head. Orrin was sitting next to me, purely dumbfounded at both the grass goat and the pink cat. This entire time, the twins were staring at each other and probobly plotting my murder.

"Mind if I just stop the battle here?" I asked, not bothering to look away from Fel and the Skiddo.

"But we were _so_ close to beating you!." The twins still spoke in sync. For some reason, they only seemed to be angry at me and not the one who actually stopped the battle. "If we're stopping then you have to agree that we won!"

I rolled my eyes. "Sure, whatever." I spun around and called for Fel to follow me, to which he responded by happily abandoning Skiddo and climbing back onto my head, walking in circles for a bit, then falling asleep. Orrin was perfectly content trailing behind me as I walked- maybe ran- away from the twins.

I guess I was just having a really weird day. I ran into a strange man on the way to Camphrier Town. He had purple hair and a pink suit. That alone was weird, but he also called himself Mr. Bonding, which scared me more than it should have. He said he would give me an O-Power, which apparently isn't actually a physical thing, it's an "emotion" that you use to "power up". I'm not making this up; I _wish_ I was creative enough to make this up. He then proceeded to yell "It's bonding time!" and... that's the last I want to say of that.

I mean, at least it was bright outside. Sure, the light was enough to temporarily blind me as soon as I walked outside, but that doesn't matter at all. There was no wind, no lakes or even any puddles, there were no clouds to block the burning rays of sunlight, and almost the entire route was void of any trees. Whenever there was a small breeze, it would only send the hot air into my face at a higher velocity. To make things worse, neither of my Water-Types knew any Water-Type moves. Look, I'm all for bright sunny days, but you can definitely have too much of a good thing.

After about five minutes of heat exhaustion, I ran into Tierno. Despite his plumpness, he apparently thought the weather was just scrumptious. Meanwhile Trevor was sweating out of his orange afro.

Once the two of them noticed i existed, they were quick to explain how Tierno got attacked by five, level-five, Pokemon and nearly died. I laughed at what was easily the funniest thing that happened all day. "Why didn't you just chase them off?"

"I did!" Tierno responded rather shakily. "Why do you think they're gone?"

I shrugged. "I'd say they were intimidated by Trevor."

"Don't drag me into this." Trevor squeaked.

Either I blanked out, or I skipped through more dialogue, because Tierno now had his Corphish in front of him and was challenging me to a battle. I'm just gonna blame it all on the heat. I battled him with Fel. We just used Sing and then Tackle a lot until we won. Trevor gave me some Honey. I don't even know...

Oh yeah. The Skiddo showed up again. It stole all the Honey from my bag, so I just -uhm- caught her. Named her Rider. Sent her to the PC. I was quite angry at the time, but I just don't care anymore..

Well... it was right after that encounter with Tierno and Trevor when I got into a battle with this guy named Hamish and his Kadabra. I figured it would be best to train Fel a bit, considering how weak he really was. I was quite confident in his abilities because of his wins against Tierno and Professor Sycamore, and I guess I had a right to. With all that in mind, I tried using the same strategy that I had used against Tierno. Fel used Sing, and everything was going fine. Fel used tackle, and it-

 _It missed._

It didn't mean much to me at the time. Just one missed attack was never anything to worry about, especially when Kadabra was still asleep. So I just called out to Fel again. I told him to use Tackle.

Orrin and I were chuckling a bit when Fel had successfully attacked Kadabra. Just that one attack managed to take away more than half It's health. We were _both_ so proud of Fel. We had a right to be proud. We all did. So it was natural that none of us had expected this to happen. I had never lost a battle before.

It wasn't a progressive thing. It was just, Kadabra woke up. _Kadabra used confusion._

It actually hurt, how beautiful an attack Confusion was. Like a tiny pink sun. A tiny sun that completely swallowed Fel- and didn't let him go.

It never let him go.

It's kind of funny, actually. The chances of that happening were terribly low. Kadabra had woken up, used Confusion, and landed a critical hit. It had just swallowed Fel and left him on the ground. It left him to sleep in the light.

I didn't know how to react, not sure if I was suppose to. At first I just kind of stood there. I yelled a few times, but they were directed at no one. Hell, Orrin acted faster than I did. He tried to wake up Fel, but he was still asleep.

Eventually I had managed to pick up Fel, and honestly, It felt as if someone had shot me through the heart. After the sudden realization of what happened, I just sort of ran. I didn't see anything the entire time. I had no idea where I was going, but I still ran.

Fel always had this strange warmth to him, but now he was the coldest thing near me.

* * *

" _Every day that passes by is just like the day before...Doesn't it make you a little nervous when you're this happy?"_

There was an old man in Camphrier town who'd always repeat that phrase over and over again, every day passing just like the day before.

 _"I'm sorry..."_

It was the first thing I heard when I talked to the nurse. It was almost insulting how little emotion was in her voice, but I guess it wasn't surprising. She was a nurse; it couldn't be the first time she saw someone die.

My first and only response was to sit in the corner and stare at an empty Pokeball. I wasn't used to it being this light. I didn't think it was something I'd ever get used to, but I knew it was something that I'd have to get used to.

I'm actually laughing right now, but there's no way you'd be able to tell...

...

...

I just fucking hated all of it! I didn't like the idea that something that seemed oh so permenant could just be gone! I'd press the button on the Pokeball and Fel would just come out and start running in circles. I tried! I tried to bring Fel back out... but nothing happened. Fel was never coming back. He wasn't asleep, or off somewhere at a farm upstate. Fel was dead. Fel was dead. Fel was very, very, _very dead._ That was that. There was no changing it. Fel, was dead.

I had always hated the fact that one day I may just forget about him, that I might just forget how happy he was to join me, but a small part of me wanted to pretend it never happened. I exiled that part of me, like it never existed. Right now, I wanted to be sad; I didn't want to forget.

...

...

Shauna.

Shauna had made a promise to me. She promised that her and the others would always be there for me if I needed them. She found me broken in the Pokemon Center. She invited me to go to Shabboneau Castle with her, and I denied.

Shauna had most likely noticed my broken state because she started to ask me what was wrong. I just sort of, snapped at her. I can still remember every single thing I said to her. I said it all while clenching the empty Pokeball in my hand, and I have never hated myself more.

 _"Why do you even care? What part about being so obnoxious benefits you? Why can't you tell that I just want to be left alone? Why are you so optimistic when everyone you know finds you insanely annoying and just wants you to leave? Why are you so horrible with social queues and **why can't you tell that I hate you?** Why-"_

Shauna had left. She was crying more than me, but I was fine with that. I was alone, and that was all I wanted. But the stares I had earned from everyone else in the Pokemon Center were getting to be too much for me. No one even seemed surprised that I had just yelled at a friend in the middle of a public building, just saddened.

Admittedly, I started to boil over. My legs had begun to burn from the lack of movement and my head was just about ready to burst, so I stood up. I ran out of the building and just sat in the blistering heat. I was uncomfortable, but I didn't feel anything. After all, it was all so much worse for Fel.

What did it feel like? What was it like to be dead? Humans can't comprehend the idea of nothingness, so we just assume that it doesn't exist. We assume that we can never die, but we still do. One day we're alive, the next, we're not. Yet, because we're human, we don't know what it's like until it happens. It happens to everyone, so why bother being upset when it comes slightly faster for some people?

 **No. No. No.** I was not about to let my thoughts drift that direction. But still... I couldn't help but wonder what it was like to be dead. Was it cold? Painful? Or was it just... nothing.

Fel was dead. I'd never see him again. There was no way that that could ever fully sink in, but it was true.

I felt something wipe tears away from my cheek. It was soft but strangely cold, almost as much as Fel was. How long had I been crying? I hadn't even noticed. I looked up to see Orrin on the ground in front of me. The vine which he used to wipe my cheek had long since retracted into his bulb. He just looked up at me in pure optimism. Pure. Annoying. Optimism.

"What do you want?" I mumbled, stuffing my face into my knees. I'd hate to say it, but I just didn't want to be happy. "How'd you get out of your Pokeball?"

Orrin wrapped one of his vines around my wrist and forced me up to my feet. Next thing I knew he was dragging me past a crumbling and overgrown stone gate, outside the town. "Orrin, where are you-"

"Saur!" Orrin called as we came to a halt.

I rubbed my wrist. "Why would you-"

Orrin smacked me upside the head, and that's when I noticed where we were. On three sides of me was a field of trees and flowers. Particularly to my right, where there lay a bush larger than me, blooming with brilliant white flowers. In front of me was a shallow cliff and a large river. There wasn't enough wind to create waves; the only things to break through the glass-like water were fish, as they shattered the silent river into thousands of tiny waves.

I laughed a bit. I know it's cheesy, but I had never noticed how clear the skies were here. I let myself fall back onto the grass below me. Each blade felt cold on my skin, but slowly warming up due to my own body heat. It was still early morning. I wondered if Calem was awake yet. I wondered if he and his Pokemon were happy on their own. I wondered if he was ok. I closed my eyes. Then there was Shauna. She'd be fine, right? I didn't really think that what I said could truly affect her that much. Yeah, I'd never seen her upset before; there was no way only I'd be able to change that.

I watched as a cloud evaporated into the air around it. I'd always like to think the clouds in the air had minds of their own. I'd often see myself in the sky, watching down at the ground as if I were the cloud in it all, slowly changing in the time. I could always look into the sky and see a story, see dragons and whales fighting together. I laughed. It's quite stupid now that I think about it, but the sky had always fascinated me. Staring up at it was just another way I'd pass the time.

Orrin poked me with his vines, trying to get me to sit back up. I complied, resting my back against a tree. Orrin handed me a red and white capsule, and I instantly recognized it as Rider's Pokeball. "How'd you get this out of the PC?" I asked with my hands wrapped around the ball. I'm not quite sure if I even expected a response. Orrin couldn't exactly talk, after all. Instead, he just lifted his head in the air and saluted to me with his vines. I chuckled. "You're adorable, you know?" Orrin leaped into my arms, knocking me back to the ground. Laughing, I lifted him up to the sky, partially to block the sun, partially because he _was_ adorable. His skin was rougher than I imagined, kind of like a sharks's but something about the change comforted me. As I pulled Orrin closer to my chest, I laughed. "I guess we have to welcome Rider to the team, then."

I stood up, placing Orrin on the ground beside me. Inching closer to the river, I wrapped my hand around the empty Pokeball, and I threw it into the water, watching it shatter the river into thousands of pieces. As it sank, I looked to Orrin and smiled. "Thank you." Orrin had somehow convinced me. This would never happen again, so I'd just have to let it go. "Thank you."

I released Rider from her Pokeball, just as the empty one reached the bottom of the river.

* * *

 **Everything in this chapter happens so fast. I'm mostly just proud of how much symbolism and foreshadowing I managed to pack into 3,000 words. I don't know how to add to this without dragging out the chapter...**

 **It kind of makes sense that, since it's written in first person, Fiera'd try to rush through character death, but that may just be me justifying my mistakes. I probobly could've made this more emotional if I wanted to, but I don't. *sigh***

 **Note to self: never listen to MCR while writing.**

 **So I tried to make this chapter a bit disconnected at the start for the sake of _trying_ to show you how frustrated Fiera was at the time and transitioning to more of a depressed mood. The point was also to write it so it seemed like Fiera was talking directly to the reader. I have no idea how well I did, so please give me some feedback on this. I'm pretty sure I ended up doing something completely different. Even so, I'm just done with this chapter. I wanna move on.**

 _ **Call 1-800-I-Can't-Write to help a teenage girl develop her horrible writing skills.**_


	8. Chapter 8

**Oh, looky looky! I finally updated!**

 **Sorry about not doing this sooner. Some stuff happened... Like my brother passing out at his doctor's appointment, which was actually hilarious afterward. He's fine. He just forgot to eat for an entire day.**

 **I am seriously just spitting out my awkwardness onto a page.**

 **Chapter Eight.**

 ** _Do You Know What I'm Seeing?_**

 **Route Seven.**

I was dashing through the route on Rider, genuinely not caring about the scenery. There were a few trees and a farm, but there was no further description was really necessary, mostly because they looked boring as hell. I personally don't find plants to be nearly as interesting as a half-ton, gluttonous, beached whale, on a bridge.

 _Seriously._

 _Okay, okay._ So about halfway through Route Seven, there's this tiny river with a bridge over it. Yeah, there was a Snorlax on the bridge. A Snorlax was sleeping on the only place that could inconvenience anyone, at all. The rest of the route was wide enough that there would be enough room for someone to pass if it fell asleep _there._ But _**no,**_ it just had to fall asleep on the bridge! I can't imagine a bridge being quite comfortable to sleep on, either. _I hate my life._

...

 **Shauna!** Shauna was there, too. I forgot about her... _Fuck._

 _Ok. Storytime._ Shauna and two others, that I didn't know, were standing in front of the bridge and contemplating how to get the Snorlax to move. By the time I got there, no one had any idea what to do. It took almost ten minutes for anyone to notice my existence, at which point Shauna, who clearly did not want to talk to me, looked at Rider besides me and gave a small hum as if she had instantly figured out what happened.

"Wakin' up a Snorlax?" I spat out, shoving my hands in the pockets of my skirt. "Maybe I can... help with the... waking of a... Snore..lax..." My voice trailed off as I slapped myself in the face, trying to remember how to talk.

Shauna chuckled. "Maybe you can." She beamed, clearly not worried about literally anything. Hell, she seemed even brighter than my future.

 _Not like that's saying much..._

Desperate, I did everything possible to avoid eye contact with Shauna. As my eyes had danced around the two strangers, I remembered. "So... Snorlax seems like a mild inconvenience..."

 **"Mild? It's more than a _mild inconvenience!"_** One of the two strangers- I call him the yelley man- broke into the unbearably awkward situation, but he had almost made it worse. **"** **My Pokemon are on the other side of that bridge! Now I have no way to get to them!"**

I glanced at Shauna, who only offered back a reluctant shrug. Unsure of what to do, I sighed at the clearly unreasonably upset man. "Just climb over the thing. Is it really that hard?"

"Unfortunately, yes." The second stranger replied. "We'd want to be prepared if this thing wakes up. I'm afraid it could kill someone if it's angered."

I laughed, motioning towards the yelley man. "You talking about the Snorlax or this guy?"

Shauna and the second one only smiled, as they were forced to hold in their laughter due to even more incomprehensible shouting from the master of yelling, himself. **"Don't laugh at her jokes! This is some serious expletive! I can't believe you would justoverlookmypain,youlittle-"** The rest of his sentence could best be described as a sand castle that a toddler created. It makes no sense and it's probably just going to turn to mush, but you're still forced to look at it and call it art.

I rolled my eyes. "Can you just find a way over, or _around_ , the river?"

 **"OH! Now isn't that genius! Why didn't I think of that!"** The yelley man groaned. **"How 'bout we all just walk three miles north and walk _around_ the river!"**

Shauna looked at me. "I'm pretty sure we could just use our Pokemon to get over the river."

"But that won't help advance the plot." The second sighed, glaring at the yelley man. "I'm pretty sure this guy won't let me sleep until the bridge is clear. Apparently, I'm the only one who can fix it, to him."

 **"Well, duh! You do it every year!"**

Confused, I stared at the man. "How often does this happen?"

The second one shrugged. "You have no idea. I _usually_ wake the thing up with a Poke Flute, but I just had that taken from me." He sighed. "I just couldn't afford rent, so he _h_ made me hand over the only valuable thing I owned."

"Whoever this is, sounds like a real jerk!" Shauna stuck her hands on her hips in frustration. "I bet we can get the Poke Flute back for you!"

He laughed. "Yeah, good luck with that. The guy who took it is just a bit of a... bit of a prick."

"Oh, I know all about pricks," I smirked. "after all, Shauna and I have to deal with Calem."

Shauna laughed. "Yeah...that." She shook her head. "Where is this guy anyway?"

"He lives in Parfum Palace on Route Six."

"HE LIVES IN A PALACE?!" Shauna exclaimed. "I was wondering what made him such a... prick." She laughed a bit awkwardly, eager to leave the conversation.

I would've rolled up my sleeves if I had any, but I didn't. Instead, I cracked my knuckles and grinned. "Let's do this, then." I grabbed Shauna by the wrist and dashed away from the bridge, eager to escape from the yelley man. His head honestly looked like a ticking time bomb, complete with a Casio watch.

...

Route Six was quite a route... Hopefully, the gardeners get paid a bundle for the work they did. I'm pretty sure it's needlessly hard to get trees to grow in perfect rows and at the same height. Somehow they flawlessly outlined the path to the palace while nearly creating a roof of leaves over the entire thing.

The second we got to Route Six, Shauna and her Quiladin actually dove into the ground and began rolling around on the ground. At this point, I had Orrin beside me, and we were _both_ scratching our heads in confusion. It was nice out, sure, but it wasn't _that_ nice. I somewhat wanted to flop on the ground and take a nap, but not enough to warrant whatever Shauna was doing.

While she was laughing hysterically, I was merely standing there, trying to pretend I didn't know her. Considering we'd only known each other for a few days, it wasn't really that hard.

"Hey!" A tourist yelled at me from a bit away. "You there, with the Bulbasaur! Batlle! Now!" She vigorously pointed her finger at me, and I'm pretty sure she was screeching a warcry.

"Oh," I laughed at, what seemed to be, just another normal person in the Kalos region. "Gimme a sec, Shauna." I sighed and took a step towards the euphoric enemy. She seemed far too happy for someone who was about to have the crap beaten out of them, but I guess it's to be expected. She sent out a Psyduck, so I sent out my own Psyduck, Clair. "Water gun!"

Clair jumped out in front of me and spat on the opposing Psyduck. There was no gigantic spout of water, just spit. It appeared we'd be stuck grossing the enemy out... to death.

"Use Tail Whip!" The enemy waddled out in front of their trainer and proceeded to distract Clair with some rather hypnotic movements of the hips it didn't have.

I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Just... Scratch." Clair stumbled forward, and she straight up slapped the other Psyduck in the face.

The tourist clasped her hands together before stopping that and beginning to pump her fist. "Retaliate with the strongest move you have, Scratch!"

Her Psyduck actually had the common sense that, when your trainer tells you to scratch, you scratch them. Clair, on the other hand, decided to not have any common sense in that regard; she merely slapped the opponent.

I rolled my eyes. "Use Disable." Honestly, I was excessively bored; this battle was quite simple, despite Clair's inability to do what I say. I was _trying_ to disable the opponent's Scratch, so they wouldn't be able to attack.

The thing is, Clair was never the smartest member of my team.

"Wow! Good thinking!" Shauna praised me as she still lay on the ground with her Pokemon, but she did so a bit too early. Clair had somehow managed to miss an attempt to use Disable. She instead tried to use Disable on a tree to the left of Psyduck. A fucking tree. She did that. This happened.

The tourist sneered."Use Disable!" The opposing Psyduck did some rather cultish dance moves, and Clair's Disable was Disabled. _Brilliant._

 ** _(This actually happened, by the way.)_**

I chuckled a bit at the rather wondrous fluke of a battle. Shauna was still on the ground and had begun laughing hysterically, again. Meanwhile, Orrin gave her his death stare for, I assume, laughing at Clair. After a few seconds of that, Orrin turned to give Clair a small pat on the back as some sort of consolation prize.

I groaned and called Clair into her Pokeball. Glancing back at Orrin, I pulled a Pokeball out of my bag and released Pepper. The Pidgey immediately flew in circles around my head nad took it upon herself to launch three tons of sand in my face. At that point, I knew for a fact this was going to be a long day.

The rest of the battle wasn't really much to get excited about. Pepper spent most of the time using Sand Attack until none of Psyduck's moves would hit. You know, the most monotonous strategy I could come up with.

"You really are amazing, Fiera!" _That_ was Shauna praising me, for some reason, after I finally won the battle. She still hadn't stopped rolling on the ground.

"Shauna," I sighed. "If you're rolling around, you better do it at the speed of sound."

Shauna sped up slightly.

I laughed, drawing my attention to the Pidgey that had perched on my head and I promptly went wide eyed.

Turns out Azar wasn't the only one who could do the whole Evolution thing. _Both_ Pepper and Orrin briefly started morphing into their evolutions.

Orrin grew slightly larger. His bulb split open revealing a closed red flower surrounded by leaves. He had become an Ivysaur.

Pepper roughly doubled in size as she became a Pidgeotto. She also grew some rather fabulous red feathers on the back of her head, as well as some multicolor tail feathers.

Unfortunately, Pepper remained on my head as she evolved, so I could barely see that she had changed at all. In fact, I probably would've only noticed Orrin if Shauna hadn't tipped me off.

"They're _soooooo_ cute!" Shauna lunged forward at Orrin and pulled him into a bear hug. "I wish you could've been _my_ Pokemon."

I glanced up at Pepper, who seemed to both crave the attention Orrin was getting and be glad she wasn't the one being choked by Shauna. Both Pepper and I smiled rather awkwardly at the person in front of us.

Something told me it would take a _really_ long time to get to the palace.

...

Yes, it did take forever to get to the palace. We left around one o'clock, and we didn't get there until six. It took us five hours to travel _one mile_. Anyway...

Gorgeous is really the only word I could use to describe the palace. Leading up to the place was a long and intricate marble pathway surrounded by black light posts. That led through a golden gate connected to fences that surrounded the palace. It itself seemed to be made out of pure gold that shimmered in the sunlight. It even had its own gatekeeper. Oh, and a shit ton of fountains.

 _You can never forget about the fountains._

"The entry fee for the palace is 1,000 per person." The gatekeeper flatly stated.

"You've gotta be kidding!" Shauna exclaimed. "It costs money to go inside?!"

"You see, the owner of the palace follows the school of thought that you can never have too much money."

I shrugged at Shauna. A fee honestly didn't seem that unreasonable. It's not like this was our house.

"Yeesh!" She groaned. "This is how the rich get richer!" She dug into her pockets and practically threw her money at the man, who, in an attempt to catch all of it, ended up swatting the money out of the air.

I rolled my eyes and simply handed my share to him.

"The proceeds from the entrance fee help pay for repairing and restoring the palace." The gatekeeper sighed. "Probably…" He pushed the gate open with a few rather infuriating screeches from the hinges. Immediately, Shauna dashed off into the palace as if it was illegal. I could only then sigh and follow her in.

...

The owner of Parfum Palace must be a _real_ modest guy. Inside, there were golden statues of Bisharp on marble pedestals that covered every single wall. Arched doorways were decorated with golden embellishments, diamonds, and pearls. There was even a life-sized statue of a Milotic right as you walked in. It was also golden- on a golden platform.

In front of the statue was, who I assumed to be, the owner of the palace. He was dressed rather formally in black pants and a white button-down shirt. Just by looking at this man, you could tell he cared nothing of world hunger.

 _"Where is it? Where could it be?!"_ He spoke with an annoyingly high-pitched voice that nearly sounded like it belonged to a prepubescent boy. He gripped his head, pulling out what was left of his hair. _"My Furfrou! My beloved little Furfrou has disappeared!"_

Confused, I turned to Shauna with a look that just screamed ' _don't you dare say anything'._

However, Shauna seemed incapable of picking up the hint. "Hey, Fiera! We should help look! I mean, if my…" She stopped, suddenly aware of the glare I was sending her. Her voice grew quieter. "If my Pokemon was missing, I'd be sick with worry."

Sighing, I looked at Orrin, who was resting on my shoulder. My melancholic expression was evident to even myself. Shauna was right; loss wasn't a great feeling to be stuck with. We probably _should_ help.

I sighed. "Why not?"

...

Shauna and I headed outside into the garden behind the palace, and the entire place suddenly grew even more impressive to the eye. A marble tiled bridge lead over an artificial moat that surrounded the majority of the main building. Another golden statue stuck out of the moat to be about half the height of the palace itself. There were even a fuck ton more fountains that poured out of the side of the building. The bridge ended in a garden surrounded by pine trees that somehow managed to fit into pots. Directly in front of the bridge was a white marble statue of Reshiram complemented by a black one of Zekrom on the opposite side of the garden. Four massive hedge gardens stood in each corner, one shaped like a Chandelure, another shaped like a male Pyroar, another like a Solrock, and the last one wasn't actually based off any Pokemon. Even so, it happened to be the only one of any consequence due to some pesky poodle.

"Ouaf!" The Furfrou cried as he ran off into the hedges.

"Please! Don't run away!" Shauna called, but Furfrou just kept racing deeper into the bushes.

Personally, I just _love_ cartoonish chase scenes where everyone runs in circles and into each other all while not even getting close to doing what they were ever trying to accomplish in the first place. Just take a moment to imagine chasing a poodle for twenty minutes, even though it's so much faster than you, making it impossible to catch. That's what happened to Shauna and me.

After one particularly bad knock in the head, I got from running into Shauna, we both just sat on the ground and stared at the Furfrou as it laughed at us from afar.

I rubbed my forehead. "Pesky little thing, ain't it?"

Shauna laughed. "I mean, at least we found it."

"What good does that do us?"

"Well," Shauna tapped her chin as she tried to think of something. "we could tell the owner where it is and let _him_ catch it instead."

Hearing this, Furfrou ran further into the hedges as it nearly pulled an ostrich and rammed it's head into the ground.

Shauna frowned. "Or maybe it just doesn't want to be caught..."

Silently, I acknowledged what Shauna had just said. Maybe Furfrou was better off without its trainer. After all, there was no way Shauna and I would be able to catch it in a garden with such sharp turns...

Suddenly, I sprung up to my feet, laughing at my own stupidity. As I finally figured out what to do, I helped Shauna up to her feet and smiled. "Hey Shauna, wait here a second." I pointed at the ground beneath us and ran off towards Furfrou, who promptly took its head out of the ground and dashed down south. All until it saw Shauna when it then ran past me and settled on a spot further north in the garden.

I glanced back at Shauna. "Do you get it now?"

"Oh!" She clasped her hands together as the realization struck her. "You want to corner it!"

"Yep." I nodded. "Come over here for a sec."

Shauna ran over to me, and I left her standing there. Then, with Shauna on the left, I ran to the right of Furfrou. Now that it had nowhere else to go, it ran straight into a corner.

"Phew!" Shauna wiped the sweat off her brow. "We finally caught it! Fiera, You're amazing!"

"Shauna," I stated. "This is the second time you've said that today. Stop."

"Oops." Shauna shrugged, blushing slightly.

We didn't exactly have much time to celebrate because, pretty soon, the owner found where we were and ran over to his beloved. "OH! My dear Furfrou! My beloved Furfrou!" He turned around to Shauna and I. "Could you be the two responsible for my wonderfrou reunion with my dear Furfrou?"

We nodded, hesitantly.

"How wonderfrou indeed! It's marvelous, simply marvelous! A situation like this demands fireworks! We shall put on a show-boom, boom! My Pokemon and I are reunited! Our bond has been proven! We'll commemorate this joyous occasion with a tremendous fireworks display!" He took a deep breath after his ramble. "And it will also serve as a reward for the tiny bit of trouble you went to. Rendezvous at the balcony. Do you understand? Ren-dez-vous. You can reach the balcony from the hall with mirrors on the second floor." And then he just waddled off with the reluctant Furfrou.

'Well," I laughed. "At least he stopped talking."

"Maybe Furfrou would've been better off if he hadn't found it… If I were a Pokemon, I'd hate to have a trainer like that!" She smiled slightly. "But I really love fireworks, so let's make the best of it!"

...

So Shauna and I ran off to the balcony, with a few detours on the way. We just _had_ to take some time and enjoy the absurdity of a golden house. The entire area seemed like an art museum with how many paintings there were everywhere. Shauna and I decided it was best to explore every nook and cranny in the palace, opening every single door.

"Let's see what's behind door number three!" I swung open a door on the second floor, revealing a massive library within the room behind it.

Spinning in circles, Shauna immediately ran inside, gaping at the enormous shelves that covered every wall.

I'll admit the library caught me off guard, too. I'm pretty sure fifteen-foot bookshelves are a safety hazard, but I don't think the owner of a solid gold palace cares about common sense.

"Do you think they have anything here about Mega Evolution?" Shauna continued scanning the books in the room without bothering to look away.

I ran my finger across a few books, looking for anything helpful. "I wouldn't exactly be surprised if they didn't." Every single book in the room looked the same. Confused, I glanced back at Shauna, trying to figure out what she was looking for. There was no way she'd be able to tell the contents of a book just by looking at the unadorned binding.

Suddenly, Shauna ran to the other side of the library and carefully peeled a book off of the shelf. "Found something!" She proclaimed before setting the text onto a table and throwing open the cover.

I walked up behind her and read the title aloud. "'The Transforming Pokemon and the Mysterious Stone'" I smiled at Shauna in surprise. "How did you find this so quickly?"

Shauna looked up at me and blushed. "I like puzzles." She looked back down at the book in front of her, silently examining the pages.

To avoid plagiarism charges, I'll just give you the gist of the book: it took place in Shalour City, the place Korrina said she was the gym leader of. The Pokemon in the story changed its form at the beginning of a battle while its trainer was holding a "mysterious stone".

"Does the stone have anything to do with the transformation?" Shauna asked.

My mind instantly went to the Venusaurite that Professor Sycamore gave me. I reached into my bag and rummaged through it until I came across the stone and its green case. "The professor said this was a clue to unlocking the mysteries of Mega Evolution." I held the stone up to the sky, watching as the light reflected off of it. "This could be one of the mysterious stones in the story." The stone itself seemed to course with power, so much that I felt my hand beginning to shake.

"OH!" Shauna threw her arms in the air. "Fiera, you're a genius! That's probably what it is!"

"Isn't it amazing what you can find out in this library?" A butler next to Shauna and me and Shauna broke into our conversation. "I heard that a forbidden tome once existed that contained the secret to bringing Pokemon back to life." He cackled. "It's probably just a rumor, though. We've certainly got nothing of the sort in this library."

"Sounds fun." I laughed a bit too sarcastically. "Nothing better than murdering the laws of nature."

"I'm not sure anyone in Kalos cares about the laws of nature." Shauna chuckled. "That's why I love it here! People are so unpredictable!"

"Funny…" I laughed staring straight at Shauna. "I assume that applies to you, as well?"

Shauna paid no attention to my comment and only looked down at the watch she didn't have. "OH! Fiera! We're about to miss the fireworks! Come on!" Shauna didn't even give me time to respond as she grabbed my wrist and yanked me out the door.

"Ack!" I exclaimed as Shauna pulled me along. "I can probably run faster than you _without_ you pulling me!"

"I know!" Shauna didn't release me from her grip until we entered a hallway that was absolutely coated with mirrors on all sides. I took the time to stop and fix my hair in one of the mirrors. After all, it's not going to stay all pretty with someone dragging you across the floor.

"Hurry up, Fiera!" Shauna walked through one of the many doors leading onto the balcony.

I sighed and followed her. Sometimes people here could be exhausting, but I didn't really mind.

The second I stepped outside, the subtle humidity struck me in the face and nearly knocked me over. The balcony overlooked the entire garden, and the sun was starting to set, painting the earth a stunning pinkish color. A silence settled upon both of us as we looked over the edge. The world seemed so small below us; it was like I could reach out and pick it up in the palm of my hand.

"Um…You know..." Shauna spoke up, feebly shaking with anxiety. I subconsciously grinned at the girl who wholly grabbed my attention. "I really hope we get to be great friends, Fiera…"

"Of course, I wouldn't dare think otherwise."

"Yeah..." She tapped her foot on the ground beneath her.

"Shauna…" I swallowed the lump that kept working its way into my throat. There wasn't much for me to say at the time, or not much I knew to say.

Shauna spun around so she could face me directly, a sudden grin spread across her face. "We haven't seen them yet, but I know I'll never forget these fireworks!" She stopped for a moment. "I'll never forget them…'Cause I watched them with you, Fiera." Suddenly, she stopped tapping her foot and pulled me into an embrace.

I hesitated, but eventually returned her embrace. I'm not one for hugs, but I suppose Shauna was someone I'd never met before. She wasn't even close to being usual.

I smiled, listening closely for Shauna's heart beat among the ruckus of the fireworks.

* * *

 **What did I just write? I think I'm going insane with how long it took to get the motivation to write this... whatever it is.**

 **Well, it's that time of year again. When everyone is scared out of their minds and kids have an excuse to eat way more candy than they should.** ** _It's testing season._**

 **Halloween's tomorrow! I'm actually dressing up as Green (female), mainly so I can go door to door stealing candy instead of asking for it.**

 **This is what happens when you can't talk to people.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Remember when I had regular updates? Me neither.**

 **Chapter Nine**

 ** _Drugs Will be Done. Punches Will be Pulled._**

Well... I guess it was nice while it lasted.

After the fireworks stopped, Shauna and I just kinda stood on the balcony, silent. There was probably some sense of meaningful conversation in the skittish glances we gave each other, but ,even if there was, it was all lost in the rather awkward silence. Meanwhile, Shauna _definitely_ had something she wanted to say, yet she defaulted to rocking back and forth on her heels and staring longingly over the balcony.

In a small attempt to break the silence, I _"casually"_ stuck my hands in my pockets and spoke up. "So... That was cool."

"Yep."

I sighed. "Kinda like the Fourth of July."

Shauna finally looked back at me. "You mean the twenty-fourth?"

"Sure."

 _And we're back._ Neither of us said anything more. Shauna just went back to staring out over the garden, which gave me plenty of time to reflect on my knowledge of Kalos holidays. As it turns out, the summer I spent in Unova was not at all furthering my understanding of other cultures.

 **"And that was my wonderfrou fireworks show for my Furfrou!"**

I gave a small sigh of relief after hearing that voice- which, mind you, is something I _never_ thought I would say.

Even before turning around, Shauna and I were well aware who was behind us. The owner of the palace _does_ have a very distinct voice.

"I assume you're satisfied with that." He gave the two of us a small glare as if eager for us to leave. _Not like we helped him or anything..._

 **"OH! Wait!"** Shauna suddenly exclaimed. "I almost forgot!"

I smacked myself, now aware that I had forgotten the only reason we came to this guy's palace in the first place. "The Poke Flute!"

"The Poke Flute, huh…" The owner said, reluctantly turning to the butler who walked in beside him. "Go get it."

The butler scuttled back into the palace.

"It was Shabboneau Castle's treasure, but I took it as payment for a loan." He shrugged with an awfully condescending smirk painted on his face. "A rich guy like me and a common person like that just didn't go together."

The butler shuffled back onto the balcony holding a strange instrument, what I assumed to be the Poke Flute, in his hand, and was quick to hand it off to me.

"Listen well you two!" The owner yelled. "Always return what you borrow. That's very important." With his head held high, he stepped back inside, leaving his butler behind him.

The butler scratched the back of his head and chuckled. "I hate my job."

I laughed a bit when I heard that, but Shauna merely gave a small and pitiful smile. I had never honestly considered how rare it was that someone got the chance to travel the world, as a job no less.

He glanced down at the floor before handing me a silver disc. "Well, I might as well give this to you. It's the TM for Protect. It blocks opposing Pokemon's moves, but if you use it many times in a row-"

"Yeah yeah." I waved him off. "I know what it does, but how do I use it?"

"Oh, why you just tell your Pokemon to use the move."

"No." I groaned. "How do I teach my Pokemon the move in the first place?"

"Uhhh…" The butler stuttered. "I should get back to work."

(Oh look an awkward reference to me having no idea how TMs work. Ha. Ha.)

...

With the butler gone and no one answering my question regarding the TM, I just headed back to route seven to wake up Snorlax. Shauna was a bit too slow to keep up with me, though.

"Oh, it's you two." The man in the fighting belt rose an eyebrow. "Did you actually manage to borrow the Poke Flute?"

I pulled the flute out of my bag and handed it to the man. "You sound like you didn't expect us to."

He paused. "Well, I. Well. That. He, uh." The man sighed. "I can play the flute right now to wake up Snorlax, but it will definitely attack when it wakes, so you may want to prepare for trouble, as in, a battle. It'll want to fight you." He coughed.

I simply smiled and nodded, resisting the urge to slowly back away.

Shauna laughed. "I'd be mad too if someone woke me up in the middle of a nap."

The man shrugged. "Well, it shouldn't be _that_ angry. I mean, it kind of only ever wakes up if something wakes it, like hunger, or a predator... or hunger, or maybe the roar of another Snorlax-"

 **"JUST WAKE THE THING, ALREADY!"**

"Heh, right..." He held the flute to his lips and played a quick D, before stopping entirely.

"Something wrong?" Shauna asked.

The man scratched the back of his head. "No, I guess I just haven't played in a while."

After a collective groan from the other three of us, the man tried again. He took a deep breath, pressed his lips to the flute, and let loose the musical equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.

Snorlax spring to its feet. A deep cry flew across the river. Birds flew from their perches. Fish jumped out of the water. The Earth itself quaked beneath us. Someone beside me fell to the ground.

"I think it's angry at us!" Shauna yelled.

The man with the flute looked back at us and shrugged. "I think my E was just a little sharp."

"A LITTLE?!" I argued, barely louder than the cries of startled Pokemon that surrounded us. "I'm surprised Snorlax is only angry enough to use earthquake!"

"Can you have this argument later? I think dealing with Snorlax is just _a little_ more important!" Shauna roared. _"And I'm pretty sure it didn't use earthquake. It's just, like, really really mad!"_

I groaned. "Don't be too cross with me if I slap that guy after this is done."

 _"What?"_

I threw a Pokeball into the air, anxiously waiting for it to open and slightly furious. "Leech Seed!"

Orrin crashed to the ground with a thud that was somehow louder than the **trees that began falling over** **.** He wasted no time and hurriedly sent out a barrage of seeds which shattered on the hostile. Vines bound Snorlax, forcing it still.

Finally, the quaking stopped, but Snorlax didn't. It tore it's arm into the atmosphere. The vines that previously held it to the ground broke from the soil. Muddy shrapnel flew in all directions as the monster slowly began to free itself from its chains.

Trust me when I say the idea of a living-breathing tank that skipped it's morning coffee storming through a countryside only slightly horrified me. _Only slightly._ Heh. I mean, it wasn't like this thing could create _goddamn earthquakes_ or anything! Honestly!

I threw my arm in front of me. "Use Sleep Powder!"

Orrin brushed its vines against the flowers, letting loose the three tons of pollen required to make an irritated music critic flop onto it's back.

"Uhm..." Shauna raised her hand slightly. "Didn't we _just_ wake it up? W-w-why would you put it back to sleep?"

I shrugged, a bit scared to admit that that _thing_ scared me to death.

The _"musician"_ twirled the flute in his hands. "I guess I'll just wake it up again." He presses his mouth to the flute, took a deep breath, and-

 **"WAIT!"** Shauna and I yelled in unison. I continued. "Can't you just wait? I may have an idea."

I dropped my bag onto the ground and carefully unzipped it, fearful even such a small noise may wake the Snorlax. I emptied the bag of twelve berries, seven potions, and three dead crickets, all before I finally found what I was looking for, a Timer Ball.

Shauna chuckled. "If you were just gonna catch it, why did we bother waking it up?"

The man held the Poke Flute between his hands. "It's so I would finally be able to play again!"

I looked back at Shauna and shrugged. "I have no idea." Ignoring the glare of a failed musician, I twirled the Timer Ball in my hand and chucked it at Snorlax.

 _One..._

 _Two..._

 _Three…_

 _Caught._

I took a sigh of relief, which was momentarily cut off by the Pokedex, insisting on shouting information about Snorlax.

" _It is not satisfied unless it eats over 880 pounds of food every day. When it is done eating, it promptly goes to sleep."_

"How are you gonna take care of that thing?" Shauna asked. "Seems like something only rich people could do."

I shrugged. "No idea." I decided on naming Snorlax Almos, and I wouldn't need to take care of it for now, anyway, as it was promptly sent to the PC.

Suddenly, we heard furious growls coming from behind us, and the palace owner, with his snarling Furfrou, came into view.

He straightened his collar and turned to the man with the black belt. "The only thing I can do with that Poke Flute is put it on display. But you've been playing since you were little, and the tone is usually lovely. It seems like my Furfrou also..." He laughed." _likes_ the sound of that flute. Not as much as it likes my beautiful, wonderfrou fireworks, of course."

Black belt guy raised an eyebrow. "Uh...Yeah...I guess so…"

"Still, your playing sounded _much_ better back in the day. I'll let you take care of that flute, so be sure to practice more. Just be a bit quieter next time."

And everyone just walked away. No, I am not kidding. That is literally what happened. Everyone was in the middle of a conversation, then walked away. It just seems a bit excessive, even If the plot needed to move along faster.

"Was THAT supposed to be an attempt to patch things up?" Shauna spoke my thoughts exactly. "Well, whatever! All's well that ends well!" She looked at me for a moment and sighed. "Actually, go on without me. I was gonna do some stuff."

I raised an eyebrow. "Is it important stuff, or-"

"Just, stuff…" With that, Shauna blushed and ran back to town.

" _Brilliant."_ I looked to Orrin on my right. I was about to open my mouth to speak until…

"Oh, hey, Fiera!" Tierno's voice broke into the nearly blissful silence I had been enjoying with Orrin. "Trev's said he wants to check out the Pokemon Day Care. Come with us!"

I laughed. "Uhm. What?" No. No. No. This was fine. It's not like I just spent an entire day in a palace searching for a rich guy's poodle then capturing a land whale even though I have no idea how to take care of it. I didn't need to visit a daycare- _and that's when it hit me._

I eagerly dashed into the day care, instantly turning on the PC.

Trevor looked at me. "This is the Pokemon Day Care! They take care of Pokemon for you here." Blah blah blah, that's basically the gist of it. Tierno said some stuff about dancing, but I was perfectly intent on not listening as I was completely occupied by my quest to remove from the PC, the physical incarnation of Gluttony.

Once I finally got my hands on Almos' Poke Ball, I dashed up to the counter and tossed the ball to the worker. "How much do I need to pay you?"

The daycare lady waved her hand. "Oh, you don't pay anything until you pick up your Pokemon."

I smiled hysterically. "Brilliant!" I took a step back. "That is a Snorlax. It needs at least 880 pounds of food every day, It sleeps half it's life, and it will never do anything productive. Good luck!" With that sudden proclamation, I flew out of the daycare and onto the pathway. Wind in my hair, clouds beneath my feet, you know, all that inspirational malarkey writers say when something good happens.

Well, the "Something good' only lasted so long; I ran into Calem. Not that Calem himself was inherently bad, it was mainly because I literally ran into him. I was so deliriously happy that I wouldn't stop running and I ended up hitting Calem with a Tackle attack. As it turns out, smiling and walking is just as big a threat as texting and walking.

"Heeey, Fieeraaaaaa?" Calem laughed as he attempted to brush the dirt of his legs, understandably confused.

"Hi."

"How are you?"

"Great."

"Great."

"Yep."

"Great."

I laughed. "I swear to Helix, Calem if it weren't for how great your hair looks I would actually punch you right now."

Calem flicked his bangs out of his face.

"OH, LOOK! CALEM'S HERE TOO!" Tierno's voice boomed from across the distance.

"Oh," Calem coughed. "They're here, too."

I smiled. "Yeah..."

Tierno ran up to us, did a twirl, and snapped. "Hey, Kal-El."

"What?"

Trevor walked up behind Tierno and gaped. "Almost everyone's here, huh?"

Tierno nodded. "We're just missing the Shaunster."

Calem glared at Tierno. "Stop."

"Shame." I neglected to tell Tierno that Shauna was nearby, and, trust me, I think it was for her own good.

"So, if everyone's here, why don't we have a double battle?" Calem suggested. "Fiera and me against you two."

"Absolutely!" Tierno agreed. "I can't resist the rhythm of a good battle!"

Trevor gave a wordless nod.

Calem turned to me and smiled. "I thought these would be good teams since you and I are neighbors."

"Oh, _sure._ " I mocked. "Is that really your reason?" I inched closer to Calem. Don't laugh, but it was mostly because his hair smelt amazing now that he actually had washed it, even if it was only once.

"What are you implying?" Calem glared at me, though I could see the corner of his mouth from into a small smile.

I stumbled backward and started laughing nervously. In desperation to find a response, I leaned to Calem and whispered in his ear. "Do you ship Tierno and Trevor, too?"

"Fiera." He rolled his eyes. "What drugs are you on, and where can I get them?"

"HEY!" Tierno interrupted. "Are we going to battle or are you two just going to keep flirting?"

I turned back to Calem in an attempt to ignore Tierno's comment. "Battle?"

"Battle." He nodded, not wanting to dwell too long on the subject either.

I sent out Orrin, Calem sent out a Fletchling, Tierno sent out Corphish, and Trevor a Pikachu.

"Fletchling! Use Quick Attack on Pikachu." Calem called out the irritatingly long command. There _was_ a reason most of us would only shout out the command, it took far too long otherwise.

Fletchling _did_ obey the command, though, but it was fast enough that I really didn't get to see it. Yet, I did get to see Pikachu look awfully angry at Fletching for being faster that it.

"Pikachu, Thundershock on Fletchling!" Pikachu gleefully called a flurry of lighting from the sky to rip Fletchling to shreds. Even though it resulted in a rather horrifying cry from Fletching, the small bird got back to its feet with relatively no problem and proceeded to arrogantly fly in circles around the electric mouse. Honestly, it was nice to see Calem's Pokemon taking after him.

I called out to Orrin. "Leech seed on Pikachu!" Dozens of minuscule vines broke out of the ground and entangled Pikachu, every so slowly draining it's life away. Fletching, seeing what had happened, momentarily perched itself on Pikachu's head and made an obnoxiously loud victory cry.

"Corphish! Vice grip on Fletchling." Tierno's Corphish dashed into the air and smashed Fletchling between its claws, leaving the crippled bird to fall to the ground in pain.

Calem gave a small grunt and recalled Fletching, then replacing it with Frogadier. "Quick Attack." Frogadier dashed forward, fluttering between momentary periods of invisibility until finally, it knocked Pikachu backward trough the air onto it's back.

Pikachu stumbled back to its feet and, at Trevor's request, called upon more thunder to envelop Frogadier, but Frogadier stayed grounded. Thundershock barely seemed to phase the frog in the slightest, despite it being super effective.

"Vice Grip on Frogadier!" Corphish lunged at Frogadier, lifting a claw into the air to smash the-

"Vine Whip!" Orrin's vines flew forward and forced Corphish three feet too far east of Frogadier to land a hit. Corphish soared through the air before falling to the ground and failing to get back up. Tierno was all out of Pokemon.

"Use Bubble!" Frogadier clasped it's hands together, formed a large bubble of water, and launched said bubble into the face of the opposing Pikachu, who just shook it off, mostly.

"Vine Whip." Orrin essentially used a vine to slap Pikachu in the face, and yet the mouse was out cold afterward. The battle would've been over right there if Trevor hadn't sent out a Flabebe, but that didn't last very long either…

"Bubble, again!" Frogadier raced around Flabebe, this time managing to send multiple bubbles before Orrin intervened.

"Take Down!" Orrin launched himself at the admittedly frail Flabebe, who hadn't managed to even get close to being able to survive the attack.

With a sigh, Trevor recalled Flabebe and looked up at Calem and me. "I guess you two are just a lot stronger than us, huh?"

"Yeah..." I shrugged, desperate to get way from any other humans. "But now that the battle's over, can I _please_ leave?"

* * *

 **Yes, that ending was rushed. My brother and I are binge-watching a bunch of DC shows, but I really wanted to get this posted, so here ya go.**

 **On the bright side, the nest chapter deals with Team Flare and should be much more interesting than my internal struggle of whether to ship Fiera with Calem or Shauna.**

 **This is my life now.**


End file.
